Page 31 - StudyTravel Magazine August 2019 Issue

TERTIARY FOCUS STUDYTRAVEL MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019

Australia’s boom

International participation in Australian higher education has been going through a
period of growth. What is this down to, and is it sustainable? asks JANE VERNON SMITH.

According to Universities Australia www.universitie- country in our region that educates brilliant global
saustralia.edu.au, international student enrolments citizens and delivers a top-quality higher education, in
at its 39 member institutions grew by 23 per cent one of the safest nations on earth.”
between 2012 and 2017, and its Data Snapshot 2019 The Data Snapshot records that the largest rep-
records that there were 431,000 international stu- resentation came from north-east Asia, followed by
dents studying at member universities in 2017 (see south-east Asia and southern & central Asia, while
table 1), alongside almost 1.1 million Australians. following at a distance were the Americas, North
Catriona Jackson, Chief Executive of Universi- Africa and the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.
ties Australia, points out that the strong growth in Across all higher education providers in Australia,
international students over the past fi ve years has numbers from Asia, already buoyant, rose by 39.2
come from every region of the world – but especially, per cent between 2012-17, while those from the
“from our own local neighbourhood, as the centre of Americas increased by almost 13.3 per cent from a
gravity for the world’s middle class continues to shift smaller base. Numbers from Europe, though much
to Asia.” She adds, “This is a powerful testament to lower, also showed modest growth of 3.75 per cent.
Australia’s strong track record as a globally engaged Statistics from the Australian Government’s De-
partment of Education and Training (DET) show that
James Cauchy, Regional the two top source countries for higher education
Director, Australasia, IDP were China (38.3 per cent of enrolments) and India

(18.1 per cent). Meanwhile, in the VET sector, India
“Over the last two years, IDP was top on 12.2 per cent, followed by China on 9.1
has continued to see growth in per cent, with Brazil (8.4 per cent) and Nepal (8.0 per
the number of students we assist in cent) close behind.
studying in Australia. In line with market trends, At Education Centre of Australia www.eca.edu.
we have noticed strong increases in the number au, Gavin Dowling, confi rms that its top markets of
of students from India. It is more than ‘Destination India, Nepal, Brazil and China are all growing signifi -
Australia’; the cities themselves are a drawcard. With cantly, on the back of an almost doubling of inter-
Melbourne and Sydney ranked in the QS top-10 best national student numbers over the past two years.
student cities in the world and three other cities in “This is down to increased demand for the pro-
the Top 50, Australia’s cities play an integral role in grammes we have and intensifi ed marketing efforts
Australia’s education offer.” in the key markets,” he explains.

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