Survey of English Language Providers: Year ended March 2009

Purpose of the survey

The objective of the Survey of English Language Providers (ELP) is to measure the revenue earned by New Zealand English Language schools for education services provided to non-resident students studying in New Zealand. The data collected from this survey is then used in the calculation of total education exports in the travel component of the Balance of Payments statistics.

Information collected

The ELP survey collects data on total revenue received from tuition and other types of fees for education services provided to non-resident students studying at English language schools. Other types of fees include activity fees, enrolment fees, book fees, and administration and processing fees. The survey also collects data on the total revenue received from non-resident students for any boarding, accommodation or homestay placement fees, where accommodation is arranged by the school. Data is requested by the country of residence of students. Also collected is the number of students from each country, and the number of weeks students studied.

Population

All known New Zealand private, polytechnic and university English language schools with non-resident students are surveyed. Respondents are identified from the Statistics New Zealand Business Frame, the English Language Schools Register (provided by the Ministry of Education), and media search activity. Primary and secondary schools are not included in the ELP survey. Where institutions offer other courses, for example formal tertiary qualifications, international students enrolled in these courses are recorded separately.

Methodology

Imputations are calculated to allow for English language providers who were surveyed but did not respond. Non-response imputations are based on the data received from that respondent the year before, rated forward by a measure of the change in the data of schools that did respond. If the respondent was not in the survey previously, or did not respond in the previous year, non-response is imputed from the average of similar-sized respondents. An estimate is also made for spending by international students on accommodation not provided by English language schools and for other spending by English language students.

Limitations

The ELP survey collects data on expenditure by international students on tuition and accommodation arranged by English language schools. No other expenditure data is collected. Expenditure estimates for international students studying in New Zealand at primary and secondary schools, and those studying for formal tertiary qualifications are based on data on average course fees.

Country data from the ELP survey should be used with caution. Respondents may not always be able to accurately identify the number of students by country of origin. Further, some respondents were able to report the number of students by country and total tuition revenue, but not tuition revenue on a by-country basis. In such cases, the same average expenditure per student was applied to all students, regardless of country of origin.

The ELP survey is designed to collect data on the number of students and expenditure for the period between 1 April and 31 March. However, it is not always possible for English language schools to report on a year ended March basis. In such cases, the respondents are asked to provide the requested information for an alternative recent year ended, such as the year ended December.

In the ELP survey, respondents are asked to provide an estimate for revenue from accommodation arranged by the school. Statistics NZ does not explicitly collect information on the accommodation expenditure of international students that do not have their accommodation arranged by the English language school. However, the estimate for other expenditure by ELP students includes all spending, other than tuition and related fees, by international students studying on English language courses in New Zealand. Therefore, all accommodation expenditure, whether arranged by an English language school or not, will be implicitly included in the 'other expenditure' estimate.

Student numbers

Student numbers collected in the ELP survey are the number of students studying during the period April 2008 to the end of March 2009. This number of students does not reflect full-time equivalent student numbers, therefore differences in tuition and accommodation expenditure per student can be a result of the differences in the length of courses.

Student weeks

Since the year ended March 2006 ELP survey, respondents were asked to provide the number of student weeks by country. This data provides information on the lengths of courses being undertaken by international students at English language schools. Together with student numbers figures, this additional data will help explain movements in tuition revenue. Some schools are unable to provide accurate information on the number of student weeks studied by country, in these instances the average number of student weeks, as reported by all other respondents, is assigned to the relevant countries. Where schools provide data in full-time equivalent student (EFTS) numbers, these figures are reported as student weeks by using the ratio of one EFTS equals 40 student weeks.

Response rates

The ELP survey has been run as a census since 2003. One hundred and sixty-three schools provided data for the year ended March 2009, and a response rate of 99 percent was achieved for the survey. Schools that closed down during the survey period may have had students earlier in the year that may not have been included in the results.

Number of schools in survey

In the March 2009 year, there were 163 schools in the survey population for the ELP questionnaire. The number of schools returning data was 161 in the March 2009 year, with 34 schools responding as having no revenue or students for the period. These 'nil responses' are a mixture of schools that have closed down, newly established schools which were planning to begin operations during the March 2010 year, and schools that have had no activity during the March 2009 year but are expecting data for the following year.  

Revisions to previously published data

Revisions were made to the estimated expenditure of international students studying in New Zealand, due to new or improved data.

Sampling errors

As the ELP survey is run as a census, sampling errors are not calculated.

Non-sampling errors

Non-sampling errors in the survey data may result from errors in the survey frame, respondent error, mistakes made during processing survey results and non-response imputation. There may be some English language schools that are not registered or are for some other reason not included in this survey population. Statistics NZ adopts procedures to detect and minimise these types of errors but they may still occur and they are not quantifiable.

Copyright

Information obtained from Statistics NZ may be freely used, reproduced, or quoted unless otherwise specified. In all cases Statistics NZ must be acknowledged as the source.

Liability

While care has been used in processing, analysing and extracting information, Statistics NZ gives no warranty that the information supplied is free from error. Statistics NZ shall not be liable for any loss suffered through the use, directly or indirectly, of any information, product or service.

Timing

Timed statistical releases are delivered using postal and electronic services provided by third parties. Delivery of these releases may be delayed by circumstances outside the control of Statistics NZ. Statistics NZ accepts no responsibility for any such delays.