Australia is "perilously close" to hitting key vaccination targets which will allow international travel to can be "more open", the country's education minister has said at English Australia's annual conference.

Representatives from peak international education sector bodies have come together to meet with the federal government to discuss the crisis in the sector.

ELICOS commencement figures in Australia dropped to a 14 year low in 2020, recording a year-on-year fall of 43.3%, according to English Australia.

The heads of Australia’s peak bodies representing the international education sector will meet with federal government ministers this week.

Australia’s English language providers “face extinction” in 2021 unless they are given additional government support and international students start returning to the country "at scale", a peak body has cautioned.

ELT providers can harness the positives from Covid-19 and use them to reinvent what and how they deliver, according to speakers at the English Australia 2020 virtual conference.

The number of students commencing courses with Australian ELICOS providers dropped to 2013-14 levels in June 2020, an English Australia analysis has shown.

The Australian government will recommence granting international student visas and allow current students to count online study while overseas as part of new measures to ensure the country remains a priority study abroad destination.