Australia’s “curry bashing” appears to have affected the education business. Educational counsellors, travel agents and industry observers say 50 to 60 per cent of students who had planned to apply for admissions this November to study in Australia are considering or are being guided to alternate destinations like the UK.
Student admissions to Australia take place three times a year — February, July and November. Since the Australian High Commission takes almost three months to issue visas, intakes for July are over. For November, the reductions have been significant, said Harsh Joshi, senior educational counsellor at Overseas Education Consultant.
| # Around 40% students head to the US; 30% to the UK; 20% to Australia; the remaining 10% to smaller countries |
| # Over 94,000 students study in the Australian continent — mostly in Melbourne and Sydney |
| # Major courses comprise management, engineering and bio-technology |
| # Education consultants say November uptake could be impacted by up to 60% |
| # UK will benefit the most, primarily because the US is facing a major slowdown. Also, costs are similar to that of the UK and the UK government |
Sanjay Narula, Managing Committee Member, Travel Agents Association of India, concurred, “Students who have already finalised their tickets and packages are going ahead with their plans but new inquiries have dropped by 50 per cent.”
He added that many of these students are now looking at South-East Asia and students who have not paid their fees yet to Australian universities are being recommended to the UK and Canada instead.
The news can be equally disconcerting for Australia’s economy. International education is the third largest source of overseas earnings, generating around $12 billion in 2008 and supporting more than 125,000 jobs in Australia. Over 93,000 Indian students are currently pursuing higher education in Australia.
According to the Australian government, as on April 2009 (year-to-date), there were 436,895 enrolments by full-fee international students in Australia on a student visa. China and India were the largest markets in both enrolments and commencements (which refers to the start date for the course).
China accounted for 24.1 per cent of enrolments and 24.2 per cent of commencements; India 18.7 and 16.7 per cent, respectively.
“Management and commerce” was the top broad field of education, accounting for 47.1 per cent of enrolments and 47.5 per cent of commencements.
The vocational education and training sector (VET) was the fastest-growing sector in both enrolments (40.8 per cent) and commencements (33.2 per cent). Around 85 per cent of VET enrolments came from Asia, which saw a 44.5 per cent growth last year.
India and China accounted for the bulk of enrolments in the VET sector. India led with 51,990 enrolments and 18,002 commencements and China followed with 22,913 enrolments and 8,788 commencements.
Australia is a third preference for students opting for international education destinations. Almost 40 per cent of Indian students who opt for international education destinations prefer the US, followed by 25 per cent for the UK, 20 per cent for Australia and the rest spread across Canada, Singapore, Dubai, New Zealand and other countries. The majority (40 per cent) of Indian students tend to pursue business studies, followed by computer, engineering, life sciences and others, said Joshi.
Australia’s leading providers of International Education, the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN is a group of five innovative universities) attracts around 25 per cent of all international students in Australia. “In addition, approximately 15 per cent of Indian higher education students studying in Australia are at one of our five member universities,” said Ross Milbourne, ATN Chair and Vice Chancellor of the University of Technology.
Now, however, Australia’s loss may be UK and Canada’s gain, say industry observers. Students are wary of opting for the US, which attracts the highest number of students from India, because it is still suffering from recession.
Also, the cost of studying in the UK and Canada works out cheaper than to Australia, This is because UK and Canada have one-year Master’s degrees, the Australian equivalent being for two years. Upesh Savla, managing director, Gee Bee Education, said a student shells out around Rs 10-15 lakh in the UK; Rs 14-15 lakh in Canada for a Master’s degree. In Australia the cost works out to around Rs 18-25 lakh.
Meanwhile, Australian universities are backing the Australian government’s efforts to help protect Indian students. Ravneet Pahwa, Country Director for Deakin University, said Deakin (which has nearly 1,500 Indian students) has taken several initiatives to educate students on the precautions while off campus. The university has given an emergency number and is also giving security escorts to its students .
Glenn Withers, Chief Executive of Universities Australia, the peak body representing 38 of Australia’s universities, said, “Injury to even one student is totally unacceptable, and a strong and constructive response to any attack is essential.”
He added that “all universities do seek to create a safe on-campus environment for everyone through measures including 24-hour security, escorting and shuttle buses, CCTV cameras, well-lit precincts and incident reporting. Off campus there is extensive liaison with Australian authorities.”
Some students may take hope from these assurances. Parshv Sheth, for instance, is packing his bags for the University of Technology, Sydney, where the academic session for a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) course begins this July.
“All the news that has appeared is frightening, especially for my family. But I have been talking to friends in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, who say that crimes take place in these places most of the time but not necessarily triggered by racism,” Seth said. “Also, if you go to places like UK, there is a higher proportion of hate crimes that take place on an almost daily basis with students.”
Jinith Panicker, another MBA aspirant to Australia, said though the incidents are ugly, “they have been blown out of proportion”. He has no second thoughts about going to Australia.
Ashok Pillai, general manager, Planet Education, concurred: “It is very unfortunate that such incidents are happening. But it is also true that such incidents are double and triple in number in the US and UK, where actual racism cases go unreported.”
“Even the story of police beating up students during the peace rally was one-sided because many students took to the streets on Monday without permission, when they were permitted for the rally only on Sunday, which created roadblocks. And unlike India, the rules in Australia are quite stringent, so the students had to be moved by force to accommodate rush-hour traffic,” Pillai added.
(Additional reporting: Chitra Unnithan, Vinay Umarji & Neha Bhatt)
