2009 UNESCO figures show Australia placed third after the UK (370,000) and the US (660,000) with more than 250,000 international students. But, Dr. Daniel Edwards, senior research fellow at ACER and author of the recent report “Joining the Dots” says encroaching competition could knock Australia out of position.

Edwards urges Australia to keep tabs on its Asia Pacific neighbours in light of UNESCO’s findings that the number of countries engaged in international education has risen to 109.

“The sheer number of countries that are now offering higher education is pretty remarkable, in particular in the Asia Pacific area, which is our home turf for international students,” Edwards told Campus Review. 

“It’s a fairly important market and the countries in this region are equipped now to deal with international students and are starting to enrol them, but we need to do analysis in terms of absolute gains in these other countries.”

“we need to do analysis in terms of absolute gains in these other countries”

In the ACER report, Edwards concedes the 2009 UNESCO data doesn’t represent market trends since then, but that it does present Australia as the most popular destination for tertiary students from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

“While it remains one of the ‘big fish’ in the international student scene, growth in the size, quality, and infrastructure for hosting international students in the future is likely to be substantial, thus signalling a warning to Australian providers that the number of host nations is growing, as is their capacity to compete for students,” Edwards writes.