Research
Snapshot
                                  September 2019
Reporting the international student data by calendar, financial year or other periods
The international student data of the Department of Education relate only to international students in Australia on student visa and are reported on a standard calendar year basis.  However, different agencies and stakeholders often use financial years, semesters and other periods for reporting purposes.  The data can be used to report on other periods provided data types are used consistently.  This Snapshot provides advice on how to use the department's data to report on calendar year, financial year and other periods including semesters using sample data for the VET sector.

Enrolments by Calendar Year
Enrolments in a calendar year consist of enrolments by international students on a student visa on the 1st of January plus all commencements by students up to the end of December. 
During a year, the department produces data for each month as the year progresses. Individual monthly ‘Year-to-date’ enrolments refer to international students enrolled on the 1st of January plus those who commenced each month up until, and including, the reporting month.  For example, using enrolment data from Fig. 1 and commencement data from Fig. 2, the ‘Year-to-date’ March 2018 enrolments are:
96,264 [enrolments as at 1st January 2018] + 18,199 + 16,184 + 7,122 [commencements for January, February and March].
This totals 137,769 enrolments.  Note: Figures 1 and 2 below are produced using the data from the department’s enrolments and commencements pivot table.

Enrolments by Financial Year
Enrolments in a financial year consist of those who were enrolled on the 1st of July plus all those who commenced each month until the end of the financial year, i.e. 30 June in the following year.
For example, using sample VET data (below), the 2017/18 financial year enrolments are (highlighted in yellow):
91,977 [enrolments as at 1st July 2017] + 141,230 [total commencements from January 2017 to June 2018 indicated in yellow in Fig. 2]
This totals 233,207 financial year enrolments.

Other periods – Second Semester
Other periods can be calculated using appropriate ‘start of period’ data (1st of any month) plus as many months of commencements as constitute the desired range.  
For example, enrolments in a defined ‘second semester 2018’ are (highlighted in blue):
106,731 [enrolments as at 1st July 2018 – Fig. 1] + 74,731 [total commencements from July 2018 to December 2018 – Fig. 2].

Note: It is not possible to simply calculate year-to-date enrolments for second semester by subtracting year-to-date enrolments as at June from year-to-date enrolments as at December.  This calculation only produces the total commencements in second semester without including the ‘start of the period’.   

This totals 181,462 second semester enrolments.