Yeah, thank you, good morning, everybody. I'm pleased to be presenting our H1 financial results and update, joined this morning by Murray Walton, our Chief Financial Officer, and Craig Mackey, Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relationships. Well, certainly, I believe we've delivered a solid result given the environment that we're operating in. IDP's recovery is clearly underway, and we are regaining momentum and very well-positioned to support the sector's recovery. I'm going to begin by starting on slide four. I think all of you are aware we took decisive actions to ensure that we could steer the company through the crisis and the pandemic.
You'll see as we go through the presentation, our diverse business model across geographies and markets, as well as product lines and services, has put us in really good stead to take advantage of the opportunity as it's been presented, with restrictions easing in many parts of the world. Most importantly, still aligned through the cycle thematic of global citizens wishing to ultimately reconnect with work, migration, and study around the world. We held our global teams in place, so we remain at full capacity and capability, and that's clearly got us set well as those opportunities present. You'll see how we've been able to respond extremely well as markets have opened up. We're in a very strong financial position with a strong cash balance. The disciplined cost management through the prior period has, again, put us in a good position.
One thing that's most important is, as we've moved through this pandemic, our business model has remained really critical to the industry and the industry rebuild. You'll see, very pleasingly, that IELTS volumes have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, again, reflecting how important that service is to ultimately connect our customers to that global ambition that they are retaining. We've been able to support our customers through what's been a difficult and uncertain time by holding our counseling organization together. We know from the studies and surveys that we've done, that our students still retain their study ambition and will move, in particular, to study in complete numbers as universities and colleges are open for them to join again on campus.
Our client services, in particular, as it relates to data insights, have become increasingly valuable to our university and college clients as they too try to understand the circumstances they're operating within and look to take advantage of restrictions easing and the rebound that they are planning for themselves. The company is strongly positioned for the opportunity ahead. Clearly, the investment we made in digital capability through the last number of years enabled us to be agile and adapt to the market and to continue to support our customers through this difficult time. Certainly, our balance sheet, our cash position, and having a full complement of people in the organization, has really poised IDP to take advantage of the opportunity as it presents itself.
If I move to slide five and we have a look at some of the financial highlights, r evenue at AUD 269 million was down 29% on PCP. I think, as you'll hear in Murray's presentation, quite pleasingly, revenue is 29% higher in H1 FY 2021 as compared to H2 FY 2020. Clearly, that top-line recovery is well underway. EBIT for the period was AUD 47.3 million, down 43%. NPATA at AUD 30.4 million was down 49%. We've retained a very strong cash balance at AUD 293 million, and now that's only down AUD 14 million since June 30th.
In that timeframe, we paid a significant dividend of just on or over AUD 40 million. If we move to some of the kind of operational metric highlights underneath those financial numbers, our student placements at 21,200, are down 37% compared to the previous comparable period, which is reflecting really the restrictions and disruptions that we have for our international students and their ability to begin on campus.
If we dig into those numbers a little bit, you'll see that the U.K. is only down 12%, which reflects, again, that market remaining open in the most part for international students through the period. Canada was down -39% and Australia down -47%. Moving to IELTS, volumes at 540,000. Tests were down 36%. Clearly here you'll see that IELTS volumes have very strongly rebound and, as I said, are now back at pre-COVID levels. In fact, if we look at H1 FY 2021 versus H2 FY 2020, IELTS volumes are up 49%. English language teaching at 3,700 courses is down 29%, again, reflective of some of the disruption and social distancing that have been in place. That now is beginning to clear for the schools in Cambodia and Vietnam.
Digital marketing was up 9% to AUD 17.5 million, a reflection of how our clients are reliant on our digital data and insight services, as I said before, to prepare them for the rebound. Moving to page six. At a high level, our global platform and our investment in people have really driven a significant amount of innovation through this period. Most pleasingly, that has enabled us to stay very close to our customers, whether they be universities and colleges, students, or test takers through the new technology. Fundamentally, leveraging the investments in both people and technology that we put into the business for the last three years. Our study abroad app had 87,000 downloads to December 30th. That's really enabling students to stay connected with us in a virtual way and track their progress in real-time.
Our IQ services from our IDP Connect teams are using our deep insights and data sets to provision up competitive tracking information, analytics, and dashboards to the clients that they can best prepare their competitive positioning as they seek to, again, compete against other universities and colleges. We've had 70 higher ed institutions sign up for those services in the first half. The uptake of computer-delivered IELTS has been extremely strong at 38% of total test volumes now in H1, that's up from 22% in H1 FY 2020. We spoke, I guess, quite a bit about virtual counseling being stood up and our ability to stay connected to our students. With many of our office network open, we have students coming back in through the doors. Nevertheless, virtual counseling will now be simply a part of our omni-channel servicing strategy.
As of today, we have about 20% of our counseling interactions taking place now online. We haven't lost sight of customer satisfaction through this period. It's been a key metric we've been holding our teams and ourselves accountable to, and we've seen a very strong improvement in our Net Promoter Score from 55 in Q1 FY 2020 to 59 in Q2 FY 2021, even though we've been operating in more disrupted environments with more challenges to stay connected to our customers. Moving to slide seven. Our IELTS digital transformation remains a key priority for us. Yes, we're very pleased with the rebound in IELTS volumes. Equally, as I've said before, we're moving ahead to ensure that we're making the investments in that product and service so that IELTS remains the leading high-stakes English language test.
We've rolled out a number of new websites to support our customers. We have 34 more country websites to roll out before the end of this financial year. We have a major piece of IELTS modernization work going on along with our partners, Cambridge and BC. That's to ensure that we've got the flexibility to rapidly innovate IELTS and bring new IELTS products and services to market. We've delivered an IELTS app, enabling us to better connect with test takers and their preparation on their IELTS journey. We ran a major campaign through the half, reaching over 36 million impressions in H1. Of course, as I touched on before, we rolled out IELTS Indicator, which was an online IELTS test to support the accepting organizations and test takers whilst we had disruption within our physical test network.
Moving to slide eight. Here you can clearly see, for many of you would have seen this slide previously at the end of the full-year and probably during our AGM meeting. We've continued to see a very strong rebound in IELTS. In aggregate, we're at levels higher than we were pre-COVID, with most countries operating at near or full capacity. Probably the only exception that comes to mind of being Canada, where there still are some restrictions in our test network, but clearly a great rebound with IELTS. Pleasingly, as part of our strategy to take advantage of every opportunity that was to be presented in this challenging environment, we rolled out 58 new computer-delivered centers in H1, and we have another 44 scheduled to open before June 30th, 2021.
Moving on to slide nine, this really reflects a couple of things. One, it reflects the improving demand within the pipeline themselves, again, looking to seek to reconnect with their global study ambition. That's reflected in our organic web traffic to the IDP sites, and you can see that is up 35%, and organic website traffic now above pre-pandemic levels. This is our highest quality traffic and highest converting traffic. I wanted to pull this one out in particular because as we looked at other channels for traffic, of course, we've really pulled back on paid marketing through the last six months. However, we now have plans to layer in aggressively marketing spend in the coming half to prepare ourselves for the fall intakes, and of course, the Australian intakes we would be expecting in February FY 2022.
Interestingly, you can see some data on the right-hand side reflecting in somewhat the preferences of international students through this period with Canada, the U.S., and generally the U.K., really standing out as markets of preference. A little bit of a challenge in Australia, and that's primarily reflected on the fact that there's still uncertainty about when international borders will open up and when students will be able to recommence their study here. On that note, moving to the next slide. I'll just give a little bit of a summary on each one of the destination markets. The United Kingdom has continued to probably take a bit of a leading position in terms of preferences. That's reflected in a couple of things. One, obviously, the quality of their institutions. Two, they've remained open to international students through the pandemic period. Borders are open.
They've got very attractive post-study work right settings. We do believe that with their coordinated and new international strategy announced, they'll be a strong market for IDP as we move into the latter part of this calendar year. Canada borders are open for international students, and they've again, been very proactive in getting their regulatory settings, in particular, around post-study work right visas and the ability ultimately to connect to employment. They've recognized the importance of international students and clearly communicated that as being potential immigration and permanent residents in that country as they seek to achieve what are even increased immigration targets for Canada. Australia, as I noted, borders remain closed, still having good post-study work right opportunities. Throughout the network, we're still seeing Australia as being perceived as a strong destination.
Indeed, the response to the pandemic here in the student community is perceived very well across our source markets. Clearly, there's some frustration in getting an indication as to when Australia will open up for international student arrivals. I won't really spend too much time on the other slide, U.S., New Zealand, and Ireland, but there's some commentary there for you to look at. If I move to the following slide, just really in summary, I think IDP is uniquely positioned in the industry extremely well. We've remained deeply connected to our students in our 30+ source countries with 1,200 counselors. Our counseling teams have had to work extra hard just to help the students really navigate some of the complexities through COVID. I think that strengthened the relationships we have with a very large student cohort.
We've, of course, stepped into really an omni-channel delivery model, enabling students to connect with us in the way they want, at the time they want, so that we can provide a service to them. Our in-country client management has become more important than ever. That's really unique for IDP in the student placement industry. In each one of the destination markets, we have a strong client team on the ground who can assist with data insights, international student recruitment strategy, and really ensure that IDP is front and center as each one of those clients seeks to, again, get back to full capability with their international student cohort.
Our global digital capability has served us well through this period. We continue to have a number of strategic programs that remain fully funded and fully supported by our large digital development team, 400 people in Chennai in our digital campus, and our more than 100 marketing specialists working on concepts like marketplace and IELTS modernization. As I've mentioned, we've rapidly expanded our IELTS test center network. We now have over 500 test locations, providing test support and preparation support to test takers around the world.
Through COVID, we've expanded data science and artificial intelligence capability. Really, that came into the business in March and is very much focused on ensuring that we can drive higher conversions and higher quality students through the pipeline much more quickly through sophisticated matching capabilities. Let me pause here and then hand over to Murray to take us through a more detailed review of the financial results.
Thanks, Andrew. I'm on slide 14, the first half overview. Revenue was AUD 269 million, down 26% on a constant currency basis, but was up 29% compared to the second half of FY 2020. All our product categories declined versus the PCP, although digital marketing revenue grew 9% within the 7% decline of events and digital marketing. English language testing revenue of AUD 158 million was 22% lower than the PCP on a constant currency basis, but a strong rebound had revenue up 63% compared to the second half of FY 2020. The November and December volumes were above 90% of the PCP. Student placement revenue was AUD 78 million, a decline of 35% on a constant currency basis with declines in all of our key destinations. The U.K. destination performed relatively better than the other destinations as their borders remained open.
English language teaching and digital marketing events revenue declined versus the PCP as our schools moved to online classes and our student placement events went digital. Digital marketing, however, continued to grow during the period with revenue up 9% versus the PCP. Gross profit was AUD 157 million, with a decline in line with revenue at 26%, and GP margins steady at 58.4%, with IELTS margins improving to 45.5%, offsetting the decline in student placement margins to 78%. Overhead costs declined 21% on a constant currency basis as significant reductions in employee costs, marketing, and travel were made to manage our cost base during the half. EBITDA at AUD 68 million is 33% lower versus the PCP. EBIT is AUD 47 million and 43% lower versus the PCP, and net profit after tax is AUD 30 million and 45% lower versus the PCP on a constant currency basis.
I'm going to move to the key operating metrics on slide 15. The key operating metrics show the impact of the pandemic across IELTS student placement and English language teaching, but we have seen improvements in our volumes in Q2. IELTS volumes were 540,000, a decline of 26% on last year. Capacity has now returned to pre-COVID levels. Student placement volumes were 21,200 and 37% below last year, with the Australian destination declining 47% and multi-destination down 29%. Australian volume was 8,000, while multi-destination volume was 13,200, with the U.K. decline only 12%, making the U.K. our largest destination in the first half. Moving on to the average fee performance.
The average test fee for IELTS was AUD 293, a 5% increase on a constant currency basis, with price increases taken in India, Australia and Pakistan adding 2.6% to the average price, and a change in country mix as lower volumes in India at a lower price and proportionately larger volumes from higher priced countries added 2.1%. This was, however, offset by a 5.3% unfavorable FX movement, which was a result of the stronger Australian dollar. The average student placement application processing fee has increased to AUD 3,693, a 4% increase on the same period last year on a constant currency basis. The Australian average fee increased 14%, with major movements being 7.5% from increases in commission rates, 3.1% from favorable study sector mix with a lower proportion of ELICOS and pathway courses and higher postgrad and undergrad programs, and a 1.4% from bonuses and incentives from our client partners.
The multi-destination average fee declined 1% on a constant currency basis with a favorable study sector mix of 6.8% and a favorable destination mix of 1%, offset by a higher credit note provision that reduced the average price by 7% to ensure that we provide for U.K. and Canadian students that have commenced online but may not join their course on campus. I'm going to move to slide 16. Our overheads have been well managed with proactive and disciplined cost reduction initiatives across the business in the first half. The monthly run rate pre AASB 16, so including office rent, averaged AUD 16.4 million in the first half as reductions in employee costs, marketing, and travel costs contributed to the 21% reduction versus the PCP.
Employee costs were down 22%, with salaries returning to pre-COVID levels for all staff except the board and senior executives in October, with the board and senior executives returning to pre-COVID levels in January 2021. The monthly run rate for the second half will increase to around AUD 20 million per month as salaries return to pre-COVID levels, wage subsidies cease, the recruitment of replacement staff commences for vacancies caused by natural attrition in the first half, and marketing spend returns to pre-COVID levels. This does not include any investment that may be made to prepare the business to take advantage of opportunities for FY 2022. The operating cash flow of the business has remained strong during the half, with CapEx reduced versus the PCP, as we focused only on strategic projects.
The FY 2020 first half dividend of AUD 42 million was paid in September, with the cash balance closing at AUD 293 million, only AUD 14 million lower than the opening cash balance for the year. I'm going to move on to slide 17, the balance sheet. The balance sheet remains strong, with AUD 293 million of cash with undrawn working capital facility of AUD 175 million. Receivables is down by 12% to AUD 61 million, as a result of billing for the U.K. student placement business being delayed until January. Contract assets increased to AUD 53 million as the increase in students commencing courses for the U.K. that were due for invoicing in November and December were delayed to January, as clients needed more time to confirm online and on-campus census dates before invoices could be triggered.
Our current borrowings drawn of AUD 59 million moved to current liabilities as the existing three-year facility is repayable at the end of December. Refinancing negotiations have commenced with our banking panel. Our current net cash position is AUD 233 million. Thanks. That's it. Back to you, Andrew.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Murray. I'll just summarize on slide 19. I think clearly the results highlight the strength of the IDP business model and the strategy. In fact, we really haven't diverted from our strategy through COVID. Our multi-destination model in providing choice to students has put us in a very resilient position as we're able to flex relative to student study destinations. We've seen a very strong rebound in IELTS test volumes, and we continue to expand our computer-delivered network to take advantage of the opportunity and the demand for IELTS testing out there.
The digital transformation and the investment that we've made there, again, competitively, I think really has IDP standing out relative to others in the industry in both the way we can service our clients with data and insights, but most importantly, service our students in better matching them to the right courses and ensuring the counselors in the network are getting the highest quality leads to service as a priority. That data science capability, whilst in really early stages, shows great promise given the breadth of our network and the depth of the technology we've invested in in our platform. Clearly, we're regaining momentum and position to capture the opportunity.
The rebound in IELTS reflects that. I think, it's worth just recognizing that IELTS is a great leading indicator for the industry as it relates to the customer's demand to reconnect with their global citizen ambitions, whether that be migration or international education. We've held our teams at full strength and they're energized and we're taking advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. Clearly, when we look at the H1 revenue versus H2 FY 2022, we can see that recovery is well underway now. Let me pause there. Operator, I'd like to open up the call to questions now, please.
Your first question comes from Michael Peet from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, Andrew, Murray, and Craig. Just on slide eight, just the IELTS testing volume chart there that you've shown. I'm just wondering, do you think there'll be a bit of a catch-up in terms of volume as students that missed out during that sort of downturn, sort of need to catch up to their ambitions, and just wondering whether that, in the last six weeks, you've seen that line continue to trend upwards?
Yeah, listen, I think there's a combination of two things in there. Clearly, there's a catch-up of demand as it relates to those markets where centers have been closed and it's been difficult for people to get their tests done. I mean, markets like Canada reflect that quite strongly. The lockdowns onshore and the beginnings of reopening reflect quite a backlog of demand for us to get through. I think more importantly, at the same time, people have kind of sat back and waited to really see what's going to happen as restrictions ease, etc.
They are now coming back in and booking their tests as they see that future opportunity for study and travel again come to the mix. I think, in answering your question, in the recent couple of months, we've continued to see it trend up. That's a good indicator. There's a little bit of backlog that we're working through, but the trend through the last couple of months have also shown us that there's more demand there to be had.
I think you've indicated pretty clearly that the U.K. has been the leader in this period, Australia, the laggard, for obvious reasons. What are the strategies for the universities here or government, do you think from here in Australia? Do we have some unusual intakes through the year to get some students back, or is it just too early to call at the moment?
Yeah, I think it's too early to call at the moment. Clearly, Australia has stepped into an eradication strategy and prioritized the return of Australian citizens. As we all know, vaccinations are underway. In my conversations with various government departments, I do get a view and I've put it to them in particular that Canada and the U.K. are presenting as extremely attractive alternatives to Australia, both from an international student perspective and a migration perspective at the moment. Both the U.K. and Canada have flagged migration will be a key strategy for the rebound economically from COVID. I get the view that at the right time, Australia will step forward and move quickly to I guess retake their position. The perceptions of students, interestingly, the students out of Southeast Asia really aren't changing their preferences, whether that be for the U.K. or Australia. Very little switching going on.
We've seen actually through the most recent period, strong demand from China still remains to Australia. There is a high regard for how Australia has protected the safety of people here. The challenge there again is just getting the borders open. The Indian students themselves are a little bit more pragmatic. They want to get on with their career aspirations through international studies, so they're more likely to switch out of markets like Australia into the U.K. and Canada, if they don't get certainty on border openings.
Coming back to your initial observation, it's probably a little bit early to give any clarity or get any clarity. We're prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that comes. As you can see in aggregate, through this period, we've ended up placing quite a number of students still into Australia, albeit, in an online study environment with the expectations that they'll travel when the market opens up.
Great. Thanks, Andrew. That's all I have for now.
Thank you. Your next question comes from James Barker from Morgans. Please go ahead.
Morning, Andrew, Murray and Craig. Just wanted to touch maybe on the IELTS capacity. You mentioned backlogs before. If we do see a period of significant pent-up demand, I guess what's the limitations on your ability to service that?
I think you can see there, James, we've been rapidly rolling capacity out with those 58 new computer-delivered centers in the first half, and again, a significant number to be delivered in the second half. I don't think we'll have capacity issues because we've got computer-delivered being rolled out rapidly and now in a number of markets, and in particular, our largest market, India, we're now able to test using paper as well. A lot of those social distancing restrictions and restrictions on venues have now been removed. That actually enables us to very quickly stand up larger venues with more desks and papers. I think whilst we can see some backlog, in particular in some markets, we'll continue to push as hard as we can to drive the capacity to take the demand as it's presented.
Okay. That's great. Thank you. I think you mentioned at the full-year result, there was 82,000 sort of unique applicants in the pipeline. Obviously, some of those would have been placed over the first half, but are you able to provide an update on that metric, please?
Yeah, p robably just to give you a little bit of insight. One of the leading indicators that we keep an eye on is applications. The application number that we've got in the system. Now, that doesn't itself directly in an environment like this lead to an APF because you'll go into a phase where you'll put applications in and ultimately then they may defer. I think, at the AGM level, we had about a -22% of that application pipeline year-to-date. As we've come into the end of the year, we're still down, but it's -14% on a year-to-date level. The application decline in aggregate is lower. I think it's very important to note that there's a couple of different dynamics going on.
We are seeing quite a few students, in particular post-grad students, defer. They'll look at their ability to get on campus in market, and if they believe they can't do it, they will defer their application to the next intake. Again, there's probably quite a bit of movement in and out of the pipeline at the moment. We've decided, and we made a conscious decision to pull back on paid marketing through the last six months, just again, to be prudent on our expenditures. We'll now move, and have moved to release marketing dollars, and we believe we can fill the pipeline, given we can see the intakes very quickly, given our marketing and our digital capabilities.
Okay. That's great. Thank you. Maybe just in terms of touching on Canada from the visa processing side, obviously, there's been a few bottlenecks and delays from a student perspective there. Are these expected to impact the second half intakes, and are they resolved now?
I guess, Canada for us is a big market, in particular from India. Canada is very attractive to the Indian students and only becoming more so based on their settings. There remains some challenges in that supply chain in getting visa processes, and that just reflects, in some respects, the safety precautions, as we can see it, of the Canadian government in opening up visa centers en masse in India, in particular for biometric acquisition, which is required for Canadian visas. We have a good number of students in the pipeline for the second half intakes for India. It is constrained still, albeit we're expecting that to alleviate through the next couple of months. Of course, where that may be problematic, we do have a very proactive strategy of convincing those students to begin online.
Whilst there may be some visa impediments in the short term, they will flush through the system. Begin online, and then move to fly and study as soon as you get around to getting your visa approved. I can't say I'm 100% sure of how many will move in that direction. Again, the Indian students are very pragmatic. If they think it's just a short-term delay, they're probably likely to study online and then move to country once their visa is processed.
Okay, thank you. Just one last one from me. Could you just talk about, I guess, your market share and the IELTS distribution over the half?
Well, we've taken a few points of share through the half. As you can imagine, we commercially respond very quickly, very aggressively with the opening up of CD capacity, which has been helpful given social distancing and restrictions and keeping customers feeling safe in that test-taking experience. Yes, we've taken share through the half.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tim Plumbe from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Congratulations on an impressive result there. Just two questions from me, if that's all right. Andrew, the first one around the IELTS recovery and a bit of a continuation of the other questions. Back to pre-COVID levels now, I suspect that demand for work secondments or immigration is still quite depressed. Do you have any insights in terms of what sort of portion of customers taking the test are potential students, and how we should think about that as a lead indicator to the potential recovery within the student placement volumes?
Yeah. Listen, I think when you look into the data, it's probably around 50/50, migration and students. I think, in that context, certainly, we believe we've got all the demand we need to get back to strong levels on student placement. I don't think, when we look at IELTS and the other data we have out there relative to student intentions, that there's any question about demand. It really is, I guess, a supply side issue as it relates to restrictions easing. As restrictions ease, the students will be there. That's very clear from the engagement that we're having and the attendance at events, etc. It's about 50/50, Tim.
Got it, thank you. The second one just about digital strategy. Continuing to show good momentum with the online inquiries up 35%. I think you touched on it a little bit earlier, and it's probably difficult given that it's not a business as usual environment. Do you have a sense in terms of where we are in that journey of closing the gap between inquiries and conversions?
I think it's a difficult question. I think I know where we are in the journey, we've got a lot of opportunities sitting in between inquiries and APFs. The data science team that we've put in place, and again, we only hired in the CDO in March. We've got very good data. We've been building that for a number of years, and that team's priority is to look at a couple of things. One, a transformative shift in business model from platform to marketplace, which primarily is about leveraging data in a sophisticated way to now enable clients to target the right students for them and students to be matched to the right clients. Leveraging data, which takes a lot of ultimately overhead off our counseling base, our counseling base still being really important as an expert by their side.
As I think, we're driving for a couple of percent improvement in conversion at the moment through better lead scoring, leveraging the data set. I think we're very early days in that journey. That is the priority of the data science team, is to lift conversion up dramatically by scoring the very large lead pipeline we have and getting it to the right counselor, the best counselor for conversion in real-time. That's kind of what the ask is of that team at the moment. We've rolled out that technology, it's integrated now into most of our contact center, and marketing automation systems. We're probably only, given we started it in March, a month or so into that. That will play a role, but it'll play a role as we move into more likely the first half of next year.
Got it. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Matt Johnston from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Andrew, Murray, Craig, can you hear me?
How you doing?
Yeah, not too bad. Maybe just first question from me, obviously, online penetration is high with student placements. Could you maybe talk to expectations around leakage that could happen in the second half?
Sorry, y ou mean students? I'm just trying to understand the question. Just students studying online?
Correct, yeah.
Yeah, I'm not sure I understand the question exactly, Matt. When you say leakage, you mean leakage out of our revenue because they're studying online?
Yeah, what's the rate at which you can actually convert into the consensus shut off with the universities?
Sorry, I lost you there.
Can you hear me now?
Yep, I've got you now.
Just because you've brought forward and people are studying online, is there a risk that leakage on holding onto that revenue could increase in the second half if people sort of change their preferences because they're not happy with the online study?
O kay, all right. No, got you. You mean switching from an online study engagement with one institution and then dropping out and moving to another institution? Is that the question?
Correct. Yep.
I certainly don't think we're seeing really any of that at the moment. For those students who have started online, there may be some who drop out, and we obviously take that into account and build a position relative to credit notes, which is probably more conservative in our numbers right now than would normally be based on just the uncertainty about how many students may continue past census date. No, in general, we're not seeing students drop out of an online study engagement and switch. I think there's probably some frustration with some of them in terms of the quality of the engagement. This is a big decision in the first place for the student and the family. They're unlikely to switch unless they're unable to gain confidence that they can get into the market in the longer term.
There's probably very little risk for Canada and the U.K. in that regard. Possibly a little bit more risk for Australia for the longer period of time. They're not clear as to when international borders will open, but no real data points to point to there as it is. I think one other thing just worth noting, we do remain very closely connected to our students, in particular as they begin their study journey.
We're often in a position where we're providing direct feedback to the institutions relative to the students' experience, in particular, whether that's an online experience. The counselor is still with them at that point. If they were to choose to switch, then we would be in a position to be the advisor that would actually help with that switch. I don't believe we would lose the revenue opportunity in that instance. We may be the instrument that helps them get a place in another institution.
Okay, that helps. Maybe just from the institution perspective, could you maybe comment on any sort of data or anecdotes you have internally around engagement with them, and if possible, some sort of like- for- like data on a look-through basis, you should be seeing that you're engaged more with the institutions and likely to take share?
I think, yes, certainly. IDP, as you all know, is very unique, right? There isn't a clear comparative competitor to IDP. The client relationships that we have have strengthened significantly through the last six to nine months. Firstly, because they themselves are unable to travel, so they're disconnected to their source markets from a marketing engagement and events perspective. They don't have a data set that enables them to get clear insights into changing student preferences within market relative to their in-market competitors or to other markets. From a digital marketing campaign point of view, we're able to work with them on bespoke campaigns based on the data sets that we can provide for them to best prepare for the uptick and be much more nuanced about how they spend their marketing dollars.
You can imagine some of them are constrained from a marketing spend and therefore will spend more with fewer. I think we're in a very good position for that. We are seeing some places, as I guess Murray said, on the Australian increase on average fee, we are seeing the universities coming to us willingly to improve the financial terms of trade, so that we can assist them with that rebound.
Okay, great. As you increase marketing spend, getting ready for the fall intake in Australia in 2022, do you expect to take marketing dollars from those institutions at the same time?
Yeah, absolutely. We expect to take a greater share of wallet. Through the provision of relevant services and in particular the data capability and insights and our marketing skills and the leverage of that technology. Equally, we haven't held our teams together as we have, not to have a very clear expectation about driving market share gains across all of our destination and source markets.
Okay, great. That is helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Philip Pepe from Blue Ocean Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question and well done on the good result. Most of my questions have been answered, so I might ask a couple on the cash flow if I can. Great result on the expense management, particularly employee costs and marketing. Do I interpret from your earlier comments that both of those will rebound to? Thank you.
Yeah, I'll hand that question to Murray. Whether marketing and employee expense will rebound?
Rebound? Yes. In the second half, the marketing spend will go back to similar levels to pre-COVID in FY 2019. We'll get back to normal spend levels. In terms of staff, was that the other one? Staff costs?
Yeah.
The salary sacrifice that the employees have given in the first half winds off. We put the staff vacancies back in that we've had through natural attrition in the first half, and the wage subsidy that we have had in the first half ends. Yes, we'll be back.
About the second half?
Yeah. Well, in terms of expenditure, first half was AUD 16.5 million per month. Second half will be at AUD 20 million per month. Up about AUD 3.5 million per month in terms of overhead.
Excellent. Just one more just on the tax. Tax expense was AUD 15 million, tax paid was AUD 8 million. Is that a timing difference or is there a benefit you'd like to take?
We've got some challenges in our tax with not being able to take up or take advantage of deferred tax assets in the countries we were making losses. The pandemic has really challenged the transfer pricing model. We have to have another look at that. As the business comes back, I expect that tax rate will drop back to more normal levels.
The discrepancy between cash tax paid versus tax accrued, is that a permanent difference or a timing difference?
Timing difference.
AUD 8 million. Yeah, timing. Cool. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from William MacDiarmid from Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Well done on an amazing result. Just looking forward, I guess, to FY 2022. This is playing off some of the market share comments you've been making. To what extent has the lack of investment in digital really damaged your competitive ability to service some of these institutions? I guess, what's the opportunity to get to FY 2022 in places like the U.K. and Canada in particular? I guess an extension from that, what kind of competitive response have you seen for English testing competitors, given how much you've benefited from computer-delivered IELTS? Thanks.
Yeah. As we look to FY 2022, when we look at it from a competitive perspective, I think, again, we hold a very unique position. As you would know, in student placement, most of our competitors are small, highly fragmented businesses. Many of them are single-destination-focused and certainly don't have a strategy or the wherewithal to make the investments that we've made. I think we're very well-placed in that regard. You've got to remember, most of our competitors, who are small and fragmented, do not have strategic relationships with the client side of the equation. IDP is very unique in that industry in that we have highly professional teams in each one of those destination markets working day in and day out, sitting across the table on helping those universities and colleges craft their international recruitment strategies.
We really do take up the space as it relates to data insights, digital marketing, digital marketing campaigns. We run the most engaged and the busiest international student search platforms in the world that's connected to a sophisticated marketing automation system, lead scoring systems, and integrated into our experts or our counselor network. I think our clients, and I know through some other events that maybe some of you have been involved in, they've been very clear as to the important role IDP will play, not just in their rebound but in their ongoing international education strategy. Equally, we work quite closely in the U.K. and Australia with the industry groups and organizations. In Australia, we run the Australian International Education Conference. It's the largest conference for clients on international education in this part of the world.
We're just very well-connected on both ends of the equation there. That puts us in very good stead to help them with not just intakes in FY 2022, but clearly ongoing. Then, in English language testing, IELTS remains clearly the world's leading test. We've just had an extension in Canada for IELTS for five more years from the Canadian government has come through. In that marketplace, there are maybe a few smaller challenges, but our position is just so strong and our distribution network in terms of test centers and supporting preparation organizations in the ecosystem really holds a large moat around IELTS. As I said before, we're not sitting on our hands. We're innovating IELTS substantially along with the partners. Yeah, I'm very confident we'll hold that position going forward.
Okay, thanks very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Callum Sinclair from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Appreciate the call as well. I'm pretty long, so I might just stick in two, if that's okay. Just an extension to the competitor or market share comments you've made, just any signs you're seeing around the fragmented base around reducing footprint or staff numbers, and what that could mean as things recover?
I certainly think, again, it's more anecdotal, right? It's very difficult to get a very clear view of the landscape. For data in this area, I rely on my region directors and my country heads to give me a view of how things are unfolding on the ground. A couple of things I would note. Clearly, those student placement organizations that were solely focused on Australia have really been hammered through this period. We've seen many of them under significant financial duress and reducing their teams. Where they had the wherewithal, they've tried to shift their resource to focus on the U.K., but you cannot do that very quickly. Counselors require multiple years of knowledge and experience in the market to be effective and successful.
Again, that's where we're very well-positioned with a counselor base and destination leaders that are aligned to the specific markets they support. My expectation is we'll see a reaction within the competitor network to focus more on the U.K. for the upcoming intake. We're expecting that. We're well prepared for it because of our position. For many of them, that will be at the cost of probably focusing on their traditional markets, which may have been Australia. Whereas we will hold our position for Australia and our strength for Australia because we do believe as restrictions ease, Australia, again, will be an extremely popular destination for international students. We hold onto that pipeline. We're helping them move to online learning with the expectations that border restrictions will ease, in particular, as we move into FY 2022.
Great, I'll just finish up on the gross margin outcome. Flat overall is pretty good given the headwinds from COVID. I guess, would we expect the gains here from IELTS and shift to digital to be permanent? While obviously the student placement side of things is cyclical. Should we think that you gain a lot of those structural side of things and the cyclical side goes back to where it was pre-COVID?
For IELTS margin, I expect the margins won't drop back. I'm expecting them to They're sitting at 45.5% at the moment. I expect that to continue to creep up a little because of the higher mix of computer-delivered. For student placement, it's the lower volume over some fixed costs that means the margins just dropped a little. As volumes come back, we'll see that gross profit margin get back up to pre-COVID levels.
Great, that's it for me. Thanks, guys.
Okay. Well, I think we've probably run through time. I'd like to thank everybody for joining the call this morning, and thank you for your questions. Murray and Craig and I look forward to speaking to many of you over the coming days and weeks. Thank you very much.