The city of Brisbane is shifting the focus of its international education strategy towards a longer-term vision of becoming a place for students to stay, work and build their own businesses. CEO of Brisbane Marketing, John Aitken talks to The PIE News about the future of the city.
The PIE: What is Brisbane’s international education strategy?
JA: One of the things that we’re looking for is maximising the length of stay of international students. When we started Study Brisbane back in 2008 the initial conversation was around ensuring that Brisbane as a community was doing all it possibly could around logistics of the welcoming experience for international students.
Over the last few years the Lord Mayor and I and the institutions have been talking more around what can be done about extending the stay. Now graduates can actually stay for a further two years to work, and that’s a fairly significant change. It’s no longer about the duration of the course and the course fee; it’s actually about what does the student offer socially, culturally and most importantly economically as well.
It’s no longer about the duration of the course and the course fee; it’s actually about what does the student offer socially, culturally and most importantly economically as well.
The PIE: And do many students stay on and work in Brisbane after graduating?
JA: Yes. About 80% of our students are from the Asia region. And we’re seeing a trend that wherever the students go, you’re actually seeing the follow through of investment flow as well, mainly around the property sector.
The PIE: Are there certain types of jobs that international students typically do?
JA: Like any students the service industry sector becomes the first one while they’re doing their graduate course, but then from beyond there it’s built totally around their course. We’ve got students that have gone into HR companies, they’re working for the major professional service sector companies, they’re working for mining companies and planning companies.
It’s not come to Brisbane and be a taxi driver, it’s actually a very broad, diverse opportunity
There’s an enormous amount of medical research and health work that’s done here as well, we have a big uptake of not only international students but scientists from all over the world. So there’s huge opportunities. It’s not come to Brisbane and be a taxi driver, it’s actually a very broad, diverse opportunity.
The PIE: And how are you making Brisbane an attractive place for these students?
JA: Our major focus is existing businesses transforming themselves and engaging with international students, because they are almost like a designer employee, language, cultural skills, location, origin of where they’re from and their connections, as well as the skills and expertise that they’ve trained for. And of course the more defined and focused you become around industry sectors and key target markets, then the students themselves can actually make a decision well Brisbane’s the place to go. I think we offer a competitive edge in what we’re pitching for.
Our major focus is existing businesses transforming themselves and engaging with international students, because they are almost like a designer employee
It’s also about being the best possible place for students when they graduate to become employees, or importantly business owners and entrepreneurs. And creating more enterprise that’s relevant to key industry sectors in the Asia Pacific region. We want these international students to be those entrepreneurs and to work with their channels in terms of the investment flow that can go into those enterprises. So it’s gone from education and being a welcoming city, to a city that’s offering employment and enterprise growth opportunities for the Asia Pacific.
The PIE: Tell me more about Brisbane’s connections to Asia Pacific.
JA: The city’s constantly looking at plans to embrace socially and culturally as a stepping stone towards ensuring that the economic falls into place as well. We have the Asia Pacific City Summit, which happens every four years in Brisbane, and gets all the cities of the Asia Pacific region together to talk about growing cities. The city’s also worked on the Asia-Pacific Triennial – a contemporary arts festival that’s held every three years and is the only festival of its type that actually has a focus on contemporary art throughout the Asia Pacific region. We also are now the owner and house the Asia Pacific Screen Awards every December, which is in a way the Academy Awards of the Asia Pacific region and has an academy of 600 filmmakers throughout the Asia Pacific region.
The city’s constantly looking at plans to embrace socially and culturally as a stepping stone towards ensuring that the economic falls into place as well.
The PIE: You mentioned 80% of students are from Asia. Do you think that’s a good balance? What are the emerging markets for Brisbane?
JA: Everyone’s grandmothers’ always told them not to put their eggs in one basket, but there’s a great diversification within that 80%. And we’ve got growing markets like Colombia, Vietnam, Pakistan. We get quite a number of students from Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, which is our sister city, as well as the Emirates and Brazil. So we’ve got a pretty diversified mix. There’s a skewed 22% comes out of China, but I think that’s about right. If that increases slightly more I wouldn’t be concerned about that whatsoever.
Korea is a very important market, and Taiwan is a very traditional market to Brisbane. We would love to see Japan grow. And historically South America is very important to Australia’s history. Brisbane has links with the other resource sectors in places like Peru, Chile, Colombia and Brazil, and to a lesser degree Argentina is important to us.
The PIE: What is the biggest challenge when marketing yourselves against Sydney and Melbourne?
JA: No challenge whatsoever! Sydney and Melbourne are known as financial sectors, and Sydney’s known for its Harbour Bridge and Opera House, Melbourne for its major events, but I think you’ll find over the next ten years Brisbane will become known as the most targeted focused city towards the Asia Pacific region. And our international airport is the second busiest international airport in Australia. We’re traditionally a very strong corporate market but also we’re a gateway as well as a destination for the whole Queensland tourism trade.
Over the next ten years Brisbane will become known as the most targeted focused city towards the Asia Pacific region
But the city also offers the greatest opportunities for employment and creation of enterprise. So more and more we’ll shake ourselves around saying well it might be the place for the educators but it’s also a great place to find a job or create an enterprise.
