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.

The Australian ELICOS sector recorded its first decrease in student numbers since 2012 last year, English Australia's annual market report has revealed.

English language providers require ongoing government support in order to save the sector following the pandemic, while up to half of all providers may be forced to close in some regions.

Educators have condemned a Chinese government travel alert against traveling to Australia to study due to discrimination and racist attacks as "unhelpful" and "cheap politics".