IDP Education Ltd has shared results for the first half of the fiscal year. IELTS volumes are down 7% for the half year. That includes a 27% drop in India. The good news is that IELTS volumes are up 1% outside of India.
IDP administered a total of 638,000 tests in the half year.
Regarding the entry of IDP IELTS into the Chinese market, according to the investor’s call, IDP is “working with a well-established third party testing provider.” The provider’s name wasn’t given, but IDP’s entrance was described as a “3P model” which is a comment worth examining.
It was also mentioned on that call that IDP’s opening of five test centers in the Yangtze River Delta area (Shanghai and its environs) gives them access to 60% of international students from China. This may be true, but capacity could be a concern in the short term – note that the British Council runs 13 test centers in Shanghai alone.
The annual report notes that IDP is “modernising paper-based testing (IOC+P).” It doesn’t define “IOC+P” but I assume that refers to an implementation of the IELTS where the questions are wholly delivered via computer, but some portion of the test (perhaps the writing section) is completed on a piece of paper. I suspect this may be rolled out in markets that are particularly attached to paper-delivered tests.
Nothing meaningful about the HOELT tender was mentioned.
IELTS drops in India following IDP’s purchase of the British Council’s operations there are really interesting. Here they are:
- FY 2023: 9% drop
- FY 2024: 42% drop
- FY 2025: 50% drop
- H1 2026: 27% drop
Quite a thing.