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Australia’s foreign commencement growth “wide and deep”

Australia’s recovery story continues as a first-of-its-kind report by the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) reveals international student commencements in Australia have rebounded after five years of shrinkage. The first six months of the year have seen more than 422,000 new commencements – an 11.5% increase on January to June 2013, with green shoots being seen in the ailing VET sector and notable growth from most source markets.

Brisbane, which has many initiatives designed to bolster its international education industry. Photo: Brisbane Marketing

The VET sector, which began to show signs of recovery over the last year, saw a 20% increase in course commencements

After a strong start to 2014, the trade commission decided to release the The Austrade Education Report: A Return to Growth, based on commencement statistics from the Department of Education and visa data from the Department of Immigration.

“We thought we would see an expansion in 2014; the question was how big and how wide?,” Quentin Stevenson-Perks, Austrade’s Acting General Manager of International Education, told The PIE News

“One key outcome of the report is that there’s strong demand across all markets; it’s not restricted to one sector”

“One key outcome of the report is that there’s strong demand across all markets; it’s not restricted to one sector,” he added.

The Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, which began to show signs of recovery over the last year, saw a 20% increase in course commencements, thanks partly to new measures easing the financial cost of visas for international VET students.

“We think there are strong opportunities for the vocational sector and skills area,” Stevenson-Perks commented. “One of our focuses in the future will be trying to leverage off Australia’s strengths in the vocational sector and also in skills, so that will be one of our more strategic directions.”

The traditionally dominant higher education sector saw commencements up by around 15%, accounting for approximately half the overall figure, while the English language sector, which Stevenson-Perks said is often referred to as the “leading indicator” of growth as it feeds into further studies, saw an increase of 28%.

International student commencements on non-award study courses such as foundation programmes increased by just over a quarter and the relatively small schools sector saw an increase of 3%.

“One of our focuses in the future will be trying to leverage off Australia’s strengths in the vocational sector”

Offshore study has also seen a boom in recent years, with some 54,000 international students studying Australian VET qualifications and 82,000 higher education degrees overseas in 2012.

This growth looks set to continue, with the establishment of new foreign ventures including the Southeast University-Monash University Joint Graduate School in Jiangsu, China last year.

Course commencements rose among students from all but 15% of Australia’s top 75% source markets. China, India and Vietnam remain the top three countries of origin with Indian commencements seeing a 52% surge.

There were notable increases in students from Thailand (40%) and Brazil (37%) and emerging markets in areas such as Latin America, North Asia, the Middle East and sub Saharan Africa, saw increases of around 30% compared to last year.

“One of the things that surprised us was the growth is not restricted to just a couple of markets; it’s wide and deep,” Stevenson-Perks commented.

Owing to a positive response from the industry Austrade says it is considering undertaking more in-depth reports examining other areas of the education industry, Australia’s fourth largest export, such as fields of study, in the future.

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