International education has a value over $20 billion to Australia’s economy confirming this industry’s status as the third largest earner and the largest services export. Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures that show the international education went pass a number of problems such as high Australian dollar, officious visa administration and attacks against foreign students and posted a new record revenue.
According to experts, the resurgence could accelerate due to Brexit and Donald Trump’s successful campaign, which have the potential to stem student flows to Australia. Chinese student enrolling at US institutions last year was the lowest in a decade according to figures released last week.
International education exports for the last financial year went up 8% compared to 2014/2015 to $20.3 billion. This figure includes fees and onshore spending on goods and services such as food and accommodation, as well as royalties, consultancies and other related services. The higher education sector attracted about $14 billion, vocational training institution earned about $3 billion, English language colleges $1 billion and schools $800 million.
According to the peak university body, international education helped sustain Australian living standards, supporting more than 130 700 jobs. More than 320 000 students from 130 countries were currently studying in Australia’s universities.
While the national average was just shy of 20% international student enrolments, last year University of Melbourne enrolled 18 384 international students, and that is 31.2% up from 16 140 the previous year. University of Melbourne’s overseas student enrolments pale into comparison with the Ballarat-based Federation University, where 42.5% of students were international students, and Gold Coast’s Bond University with 41.3%.
University of Melbourne was followed by the Australian National University, with 28% international students. University of Sydney, UNSW, Monash University, UTS and RMIT all had more than one in four students from overseas.
According to previous research, international students not only subsidise the teaching of domestic students, but also keep afloat the multi-million-dollar research efforts of major universities.
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Source: The Australian
A very comprehensive overview of education industry in Australia. The quality of education imparted in Australia is acknowledged world-wide. Equally, the country is making all the right efforts to attract the best of the talent in various fields, which is reflecting in various visa categories offered for overseas students.