Education Minister Simon Birmingham said Australia has taken in some 510,000 international students from over 190 countries this year.
"We're on track to continue our record-breaking run of growth in international education," he said.
International students in Australia in Feb 2018 was 509,610 and this is 12% more students than in Feb 2017.
56% of international students are from top 5 countries including China (31%), India (12%), Nepal(5%), Malaysia(4%) and Vietnam(4%)
[Monthly summary of international student enrolment data by department of education and training]
Source: Department of Education and training
The number accounts for students enrolled in higher education, vocational education and training (VET), Schools, English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) and non-award sectors.
Enrolment of International students in Feb 2018 was 542,054 because there are more enrolments than students since a student can study in more than one course in one calendar year.
Higher education was top with 56% (302,513) and VET was second with 24%(130,879)
Mr Birmingham said international students are extremely valuable to Australia.
“International education is vital to the people-to-people links and knowledge sharing between Australia and the rest of the world,” he said.
“Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown the value of international education jumped 22 per cent from 2016 to $32.2 billion last year.”
