The South Australian government has announced that it will funnel AUS$5.7m over four years into attracting overseas students, as part of a major budget package to increase international travel to the state.
The financial injection will fund a ‘Destination Adelaide’ campaign, specifically targeting students in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
It will also be used to develop scholarship and incentive programmes for international students and work with universities and accommodation providers to ensure that by 2017, new international students who are offered a public university place in Adelaide will also be offered accommodation.
“This investment is about accelerating the growth of our international education sector to drive the economy and job creation”
“This investment is about accelerating the growth of our international education sector to drive the economy and job creation,” Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis announced.
“It links directly with one of our key economic priorities to grow South Australia’s reputation as the ‘knowledge state’ and attract a diverse body of students,” he added.
Other initiatives include developing a StudyAdelaide mobile app that will act as a guide for international students and expanding the state’s Qingdao student ambassador social media campaign in China to Shandong.
Launched last year, the ambassador programme was viewed by more than 170 million people online and rolling it out to a second Chinese province will mean that millions more potential students will be made aware of what South Australia has to offer, said Employment, Higher Education and Skills Minister, Gail Gago.
“It clearly showed the incredible interest from international students in coming to Adelaide to experience our world-class education and our safe, friendly and relaxed lifestyle,” she commented.
The campaign will link with a major push to increase international tourism to the state.
Tourism spending is set to increase by more than AUS$50m over the next four years, quadrupling the amount of money in the government’s bid fund.
There are currently more than 30,000 international students in South Australia. Education is the state’s fifth largest export, bringing in an estimated AUS$972m a year.
