Malta has seen a decrease of 4 per cent year-on-year in the number of foreign students studying English at its licensed English Language Teaching (ELT) schools.

According to Malta’s National Statistics Office (NSO), in the year 2019, only 83,610 students came to Malta for English Language studies, compared to the 87,112 students who came in 2018. So, there was a decrease of 4.0% in the year 2019. 

Though there was a slight decrease in the total number of foreign students coming to Malta for studying the English language, Maltese ELTs saw an increase in the number of non-EU students from the previous year.

Russia, Brazil and Japan were the main origin countries in 2019 for non-EU ELT students in Malta, contributing 5,997, 5,000 and 4,106 students respectively.

In each of Russia, Brazil and Japan’s case, the student numbers were an increase from the 2018 figures, when they accounted for 5,396, 4,360 and 3,508 ELT students in Malta respectively.

According to StudyTravel Network, this can be attributed to the Maltese government introducing working rights for non-EU English Language students. 

Nearly half of foreign students studying English in Malta come from EU
The biggest share of foreign students who were studying English in Malta came from other EU countries, viz. Italy (18,335), Germany (9,764), and France (8,878).

Together, students from these countries made up 44.2% of the total number of students who came to Malta to pursue English Language studies.

Overall, in 2019, 56,597 foreign students pursuing English studies in Malta came from the EU, and 27,013 from non-EU countries. This compared to a total of 62,957 and 24,155 respectively in 2018.

Of the total ELT student population, a majority was female (60.1%). Most of the students were aged 15 years or less, and only 6,224 students were aged 50 and above. 

In 2019, 70.3% of the ELT student population attended the ‘General English: Standard’ course while 15.9% chose the ‘Intensive English’ course.