Australasia

Austrade, the Australian government’s trade and development arm, has highlighted growing recruitment opportunities in Sri Lankan schools for Australian providers, after organising a visit to Colombo. About 4,500 Sri Lankan students are currently enrolled at Australian universities, while a number of Australian HEIs operate offshore in Sri Lanka.

New Zealand is to take all student visa applications online from late 2013 in a bid to speed up processing and improve customer service. It will be the first service to be delivered through the country's Immigration Global Management System (IGMS) – a new "fit for purpose" IT system aimed at modernising the immigration system by 2015.

The state of NSW, Australia, will finally grant overseas students discounts on the cost of travel in a bid to boost its economy. The concessions – available in every other state bar Victoria – provide up to 35% off travel, creating more equity with Australian students, improving student safety and cutting living costs.

One of the largest English language competitions ever to be held in China will run next year, as part of a new agreement to build ties between Chinese polytechnics and Australian Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes. The competition will be promoted across all of China’s 1,200 polytechnics in 2013.

In a state trip to India last week, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard used the trip to assure Indians of a welcome reception in Australia – and announced new funding for educational and research projects, which she says are at the heart of economic and social ties between the two countries. Occupational qualifications will be mutually recognised..

Education New Zealand has developed a promotional campaign in China that will include a factual TV series broadcast in Mandarin featuring interviews with real students and stories of alumni success. The shows will be broadcast next year and followed up with social media campaigns aimed at students.

International Education in the Asian Century was the theme for the AIEC conference in Australia, but the event also clearly focused on understanding what international students want and what influences their purchase patterns. The recurring theme was graduate opportunity, or "Return on Investment" for international students.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has introduced a set of principles to promote and protect the rights of international students and inform those who work with them. They are designed to make students aware of their rights when studying abroad as well as prevent economic insecurity, threats to safety and social isolation.

New data modelling from the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) predicts that the downturn in Australia's international education industry will get worse before it gets better, taking almost a decade to recover and threatening further jobs.

Despite dominating elite positions in this year's Times Higher Education World University Rankings, US and UK institutions fell in the global top 200 list signifying an emerging power shift to Asia Pacific countries. Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education, said huge investment in top research universities across Asia was starting to pay off.

New Zealand's ERO report on schools' provisions for international students has endorsed the school sector's capabilities – the report found that 90% of assessed schools successfully seek out and respond to aspirations of international students..

Boosting student exchange and mobility in the Pacific Rim region was high on the agenda at the recent APEC summit in Vladivostok, Russia, as Australia and Russia prioritised a deal to open up the region's higher education market. With 21 member nations in APEC, any unilateral student exchange deal could lead to a strong student mobility programme akin to Europe's Erasmus exchange programme.

The number of students enrolled in tertiary education outside of their country of origin reached 4.1 million in 2010, according to new research from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – up from 3.7 million in 2009 and by a staggering 99% since 2000.

In a first-of-its-kind deal, the Chinese government has agreed to train 300 Indian teachers at top Chinese universities in a bid to boost Mandarin learning across India. The teachers will then return to India to help promote the uptake of Mandarin language study. The agreement is between the Confucius Institute and India's Central Board of Secondary Education.

New Zealand has launched a marketing drive to increase the Canterbury region's appeal as a destination for international students, after enrolments were hit by last year's earthquake. The scheme, Christchurch Educated, will also guarantee university entrance to international graduates of Christchurch secondary schools.