Education agents are assisting students to find English language schools in Ireland and Malta over the UK, as visa issues continue to frustrate agents.

Projects addressing issues such as migration, journalism training and global warming have become recipients of 2019 Global Education Ideas Awards from GENE.

The first six months of 2019 brought a slight decrease in student numbers for the Maltese ELT industry, while student weeks increased.

A potential new policy will make Maltese lessons compulsory in schools and mandate that every educator "is competent enough to teach in Maltese".

After an unprecedented 13.6% rise in ELT student numbers in Malta in 2017, latest figures have shown that the country's sector success somewhat flatlined in 2018 with a 0.1% decrease on the previous total.

Student arrivals and student weeks were down during the busiest month of the year for Malta’s ELT industry, the FELTOM ELT Barometer carried out by Deloitte revealed.

The total net revenue from the Maltese ELT sector increased by 4.9% in 2017, but tuition revenue by student week decreased almost by 6%, Deloitte found

Malta has announced changes to its student visa policy that will simplify and streamline the process for non-EU students and include work rights.