VET & TAFE campusreview. com. au
From China, with fear
A close look at one critical neighbour’ s education system reveals policy shortcomings in Australia that must be addressed before it’ s too late.
By Martin Riordan
Living on a sabbatical in Shanghai has certain benefits. Up close and personal, the Chinese education system reveals a size and scale beyond expectations for any Australian.
Shanghai City alone graduates 20,000 students a year, who all register to study abroad. The wider student numbers make for a giddy ride. The United States is the favoured destination. An education agent describes that in answer to its Study Abroad App, 7 out of 10‘ like’ the US. Australia is usually a distant third, after the UK.
After the booming Shanghai Index and Australian property, the biggest investment market in China is private universities. The Chinese Ministry of Education is expected to ease regulation on this sector in coming years and widen its accreditation, given ever-increasing pressure on Chinese single-parent families trying to secure a local university place for their son or daughter.
A prominent private university with 10,000 enrolments has already launched a registered training organisation in Melbourne and has more than 300 Chinese students enrolled down under. It now seeks to secure pathway articulation with a Go8 university for diploma students.
Undoubtedly, north and south Asian private university strategies for penetration into Australia will bring the next wave of concerns for the already challenged regulators, ASQA and TEQSA.
For example, one giant policy trend surely remains the Ministry of Education’ s decision to encourage 600 of China’ s 2000 universities to become applied technology or polytechnic institutions. Whilst this plan had push back from the country’ s university presidents when the China State Council released initial proposals last year, pressure remains to make it happen. Not least from China’ s media, which has showcased that 20 per cent of current local university graduates struggle for a job two years after graduation. Ministry research agencies are now completing criteria that will allocate who’ s in and who’ s out of this policy mix, with emphasis on innovation indicators.
This is the latest of several radical plans for the tertiary education system in China. The Ministry of Education has flagged that it will probably release a further information paper on the university reform plan. Expectations are rising that this will begin from next year.
Australia’ s international education has much to gain – or lose – from this reform. The China Ministry insists it will be closely tracking the Australian TAFE experience, with internships and industry signing off on qualifications. This is ambitious, but designed so that China may better cope with its extraordinary and fast-expanding technological industry skill needs, going beyond the early years when China was instead the world’ s cheap factory base.
Combined with trends from India’ s improving economy, the
22