VOLATILITY in overseas student demand has been highlighted by leading indicators showing key universities up eight per cent, but English language courses suffering a record fall, with India down 85 per cent.

"With the focus on violence and visa changes we have lost sight of the fact that the Australian dollar is incredibly strong against the US dollar and UK pound," English Australia executive director Sue Blundell told the HES Tuesday.

Ms Blundell - whose organisation represents English language centres in universities, TAFEs and private colleges - said demand was down almost 13 per cent, entrenching a continual decline over six months.

Seven of the top 10 source countries for English courses showed declining numbers comprising Brazil, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Taiwan, she said.

India has been so badly affected it has plummeted from being Australia's number two source country for English last year, to 11th this year.

"If I was a university I would look at this very carefully as an indicator of what will be happening six to 12 months down the track," she said.

The 12.8 per cent drop in English language commencements translated to 2,515 fewer students compared to the same time last year, she said.

Ms Blundell said she was very concerned that Australia was about to implement more regulation that risked further dampening demand.

However the other leading indicator, Navitas, which feeds overseas students to 14 Australian universities, has announced an eight per cent increase in enrolments over the same time last year.

Overseas, Navitas UK operations are up 88 per cent, its Canadian operations are up 35 per cent, and its Asian/African operations up 8 per cent.