Australian beckons students

Foreign education dreams have not faded away into oblivion even with "international schools and institutes"mushrooming in the country.

In fact, Hyderabadis seem to be acutely devoted when it comes to aspiring for foreign degrees, as according to Henry A S Ledlie, director (India), IDP Education Australia Limited, one-third of the total number of Indian students who travel to Australia are from Hyderabad.

IDP Education Australia is a global organisation with 62 locations around the world and provides assistance for education opportunities in Australia.

In 1995, there were around 300 Indian students studying in Australia and today the number has spiralled to 21,000. "We expect that by 2025 there will more than 80,000 Indian students studying in Australia," he adds.

According to Ledlie, IT, engineering, business management, biotechnology, accounting, hospital management and culinary arts are the courses that the Indian students usually opt for in Australia. "From Hyderabad, a majority of the students opt for biotechnology, IT, engineering and culinary arts," he says.

This, incidentally, is vastly different from what the Chinese students, which comprise the majority of the approximately two lakh international students in Australia, opt for. "Most of the Chinese students opt for short-term English speaking courses in Australia. Indians have an advantage over their Chinese counterparts of already being conversant in English," Ledlie says.

Women, incidentally, comprise a mere 15 per cent of the total number of Indian students who travel to Australia for higher education. "This, however, is a good jump from around two per cent some years back," he adds.

One of the few female students at the recent interview sessions organised by IDP in Hyderabad was Arpita who is planning to do a postgraduate course in Australia. "I am looking at doing a course in accounting as the Australian universities are strong in this area," she says.

Seems like Australia has quietly notched up some points to emerge as one of the popular destinations for foreign education, although US still rules the roost.

Denying that UK is the second big player in this sector, Ledlie says, "Between UK and Australia, the fight for the second position is like the one between Coke and Pepsi. Both are tough competitors."

He, in fact, believes that Australia has an edge over its counterparts as "we don't call Indians in our country, 'Indian curry' or 'lungi'."

IDP has seven offices in India today and is now planning to set up franchisee offices in other cities.

"We aim to have at least one office in the capital city of each state by the end of the next three years to bank on the increasing demand for education in Australia," Ledlie said.

The average total costs (including tuition fees and living costs) for an MBA degree in Australia is around $ 23,518 for 1.8 years, and for postgraduation (two years) in science, it is around $ 29,342.