'Australian International Education Climate' appears turbulent

Australian international education is facingthe current situation described as "a perfect storm". This is the result of a host of negative factors for Australian education all operating at the same time. 

Of course, the global financial crisis, which has weakened has demand because parents and students have found themselves under financial stress. 

The weakening American dollar - and strengthening Aussie dollar - has made Australia more expensive while, at the same time, America has become a less expensive destination for foreign students.Students, particularly those from China, students who would have formerly come to Australia are now choosing to study in the USA. Because of the financial crisis, American universities have become more interested in attracting fee-paying international students. 

Indeed, they are now using IDP, the marketing agency originally founded by Australian universities, to compete with Australia. They are also employing other agents; in many cases, the same agents used by Australian universities. 

The fees at many American state universities are lower than Australian Counterparts. The US government is helping universities by relaxing visa requirements and greatly speeding up visa processing times. The UK, the second most popular study destinationafter the USA, has also freed up its visa system and it also makes visa decisions faster than we do in Australia. 

Australia is also suffering from the terrible publicity surrounding attacks on Indian students, the collapse of private providers (which sometimes leaves students stranded and out of pocket) and the just completed review of the ESOS Act, which gives the impression that Australian education has been poorly regulated. Not surprisingly, many agents have lost confidence in Australian education, preferring to send students to the USA and UK instead. 

Alas, this is not the end of our problems. The Australian government surprised and worried international students by cancelling the old list of occupations acceptable for immigration and then, after several months of uncertainty, replacing the list with a new and much smaller one. Students are now worried that the rules may change again. 

While our competitors are relaxing their visa requirements, the Australian government has tightened ours requiring Chinese students (who make up one-third of higher education enrolments) to show that they have $18,000 in the bank for every year of proposed study. 

All this factors are creating a stormy environment in which Australian education will definetly suffer. 

Courtesy onlineopinion.com.au

I say ‘A Good Bill’, What’s your view?

  The Cabinet on Monday cleared a bill that will enable Foreign Universities to  setup campuses in India. While reporting for the Foreign Universities Bill, issues of shortage of faculty and poaching of academicians are raised by media etc

Already one lakh Indian students go out every year for higher education from India. Most of these students go out of the country to pursue their higher studies because of lack of facilities for quality education in the country. This also costs a huge foreign exchange outgo to the exchequer.

Till the BSNL-MTNL era, the Indian telecom sector had similar apprehensions and it was unimaginable that the level of  telecom services will increase so much when it was transferred to  private sector . The aviation sector also saw similar changes after it was opened to the private sector ending the Indian Airlines, Air India monopoly.

The Indian educational sector is bound to be more prosperous  in the coming  days to come by the step of allowing the foreign universities to setup campuses in the country. It will  attract more aspirants towards this opportunity and will bring in qualitative changes in the educational system of India.

While, many other civil services offer better perks than academics, the real mentors of the country i.e. the academicians rank poorly on this count as well. 

Mr. Kapil Sibal deserves all kudos for pushing through this bill which will bring out all qualitative changes in the educational system of the country.

This policy will attract  students from other countries for pursuing education at lower costs as India has the advantage of lower infrastructure cost.

The educational sector is also a very similar sector which is based on the same two components i.e. quality manpower and infrastructure and India certainly has an edge over many other countries in availability of both these components.