“Sloppy practices” on international students
12 June 2015 | Sloppy student services and false attendance reporting are systemic problems plaguing overseas students at private education providers, the national Overseas Students Ombudsman has revealed. The Ombudsman released a new issues paper on poor compliance in the private education sector, based on 448 investigations into student complaints since the body’s establishment in 2011. It warned some providers were failing to intervene with at-risk students, allowing weak students to continue to study and fail. Student absences were also being miscalculated. Providers were marking students absent when they were merely late, or on days when it was a public holiday and there were no classes scheduled. These failures posed serious consequences for international students, who risked being reported to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and being sent home if they failed to meet basic academic and attendance requirements as prescribed in their student visa…..[ MORE ]….
International strategy welcomed
16 April 2015 | The draft National Strategy for International Education released by the government in early April has been welcomed by the tertiary sector. The strategy defines three pillars of international education and six achievable goals to underpin Australia continuing to be a destination of choice for students, teachers and researchers. Submissions will be taken on the strategy until 29 May. …..[ MORE ]…..
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International student numbers up 10%
14 July 2014 | The latest monthly international enrolment and commencement report shows a 10% increase in full-fee paying international students on May last year. China and India accounted for 38.4% and 9.0% respectively of enrolments by students in higher education. India had the largest share of total enrolments (18.6%) and of total commencements (16.2%) in vocational education and training, with China providing 9.9% of enrolments….[ MORE ]….
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International HE on the uptick
Prospects for international higher education are positive despite last year’s downturn, according to Ian Watt, head of international operations and student recruitment at the Australian National University, who says student enquiry rates are much healthier than enrolment figures suggest.
ACPET: extend visa arrangements
The Australian Council of Private Education and Training has called on the government to extend the streamlined visa arrangements granted to universities in April 2012, the VET sector, saying that an industry that can positively contribute to Australia’s economy and create jobs is being left to decline.
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US international numbers growing
The number of international students in the United States increased by 5.7% in 2011-12, growing to a record high of 764,495. For the first time since 2000-01, the number of international undergraduates exceeds the number of foreign graduate students.American colleges have stepped up their recruitment of international undergraduate students in recent years. They’ve been motivated both by financial considerations and by the educational opportunities created by an internationally diverse student population.
UK middle-class pupils shun universities as fees rise
University applications have fallen by almost a quarter in some parts of the England, including some of the most affluent regions.The demand for degree courses from British students has dropped by more than 50,000 – almost 9% – this year, with the University and College Admissions Service also concluding that there was evidence of a sharper fall in application rates for young people from wealthier backgrounds, compared with poorer teenagers.
Promoting the rights of international students
18 October | For the first time, foreign students in Australia have their own ‘bill of rights’. This follows the release by the Australian Human Rights Commission of a set of principles to promote and protect the rights of international students, which it says have too often been ignored by individuals and organisations.
The principles are set out under four main headings, with summary translations in 10 other languages:
- Enhancing the human rights of international students.
- Ensuring all international students have access to human rights and freedom from discrimination protections.
- Understanding the diverse needs of international students.
- Empowering international students during their stay in Australia.
Safety preys on students minds
16 October | “Even if I wanted to go to Australia, and I got the course I wanted, there is no way I could convince my mum and dad,” a young Indian student told British Council researchers in Delhi last month.
The student’s parents are not alone in worrying about sending their offspring to Australia. The number of Indian students enrolled in our colleges and universities has collapsed over the past three years — from 121,000 in 2009 down to 48,000 by August this year — at an estimated cost to the national economy of more than $2 billion.
More Australian students study O/S
12 October | More Australian university students than ever are studying overseas, benefiting from increased funding by the institutions and the Commonwealth government’s OS-HELP load program. The number of students who studied overseas totalled 8.1% of the number of those who completed courses last year, the highest figure yet for travel by Australian university students. A study by researcher Alan Olsen for Universities Australia found that 32.7% of the Australian university students who studied overseas last year did so in Asia.
China market dips, India on the up
4 October | The number of new undergraduates from overseas fell 12.8% in the year to August, latest figures show. Post-graduate commencements by overseas students rose slightly, compared with the same period last year. Higher education starts in total were down by 6.7% to 82,825 in the year to August. New university students from China, by far the biggest market, declined by 7.6% to 34,949 in the year to August, Australian Education International reported.
International regulation requires “nuance”
4 October | The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) needs to ensure it has the expertise to understand “nuances” in international education as it applies its new standards framework, Flinders University’s deputy Dean Forbes has warned, pointing out that it is a big and highly complex part of the university sector. The people managing the standards framework must have a capacity to understand the nuances that come from a deeper understanding of what happens in international education.
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The world’s best cities for students
16 September As well as its 2012 World University Rankings, with four Australian universities are in the top 50 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) also has a top 50 ranking of the Best student cities in the world in 2012. Australia does well with all five mainland capitals in the top 30: Melbourne (4), Sydney (6), Brisbane (22), Perth (25), Adelaide (29)…..[Continue Reading]…
“Massification” continues to transform higher education
13 September The East Asia and the Pacific region is expected to exceed enrolments of 100 million students between 2020 and 2021 and to exceed enrolments of 200 million between 2033 and 2034. By 2035, 42% of global enrolments (or 212.9 million enrolments) will be from this region, a sharp contrast to the 25% proportion it attained back in 2000….[Continue Reading]…
More Indian students coming to campus…
30 August 2012 | A dramatic rise in offshore visa grants points to the possible re-emergence of India as a key higher education market but onshore demand for vocational education and training, dominated in recent times by Indians, is weakening….[Continue Reading]…
…while India shelves foreign unis
30 August 2012 | The Indian parliament has shelved its foreign educational institutions bill leading to mixed Australian reactions….[Continue Reading]…
Go8 and China 9 extend alliance to promote international student flow
21 August 2012 | A newly extended alliance between the Group of Eight coalition of Australian universities and the China 9 universities is helping to build “globally mobile students” says Go8 executive director Michael Gallagher….[Continue Reading]…
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