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INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION in Australia are enrolled in business study, commerce and accounting-related courses – [ has led to us ] not updating curriculums the way, for example, North America, is.
We have to match curriculums to suit the market demand from our key source countries, but we must also consider delivery modes. Under our current national code, any course in an Australian education institution that enrols international fee-paying students can have only a 25 per cent maximum online learning component. The Council of International Students Australia, which IEAA works very closely with, is calling for the retention of that 25 per cent cap, [ arguing that the parents of these students ] don’ t pay $ 30,000 a year for them to come to universities and sit in a computer lab with online learning.
On the other hand, we’ ve got Universities Australia, a peak body with which we also work closely, saying there should be no cap on online learning when it comes to delivery mode for international students.
The [ ideal ] lies somewhere between the two extremes, the blended learning and online learning that’ s done well can be beneficial to all students.
COMPETITIVE COST STRUCTURES Both the Hobsons International Student Survey that was released recently and the I-graduate International Student Barometer indicate that Australia constantly lets itself down with regard to living expenses. Certainly our tuition fees are up there amongst the most expensive, even with the downturn in the Australia dollar, but our accommodation costs are just prohibitive compared with many other countries.
In some ways, we’ re a victim of our capital city, coast-hugging tendencies. International students are paying top dollar for rental and on-campus accommodation in the big cities, whereas in many competing countries, such as Canada, New Zealand and the UK, decentralisation of campuses makes living costs much less expensive.
We also have to be careful when it comes to how we talk about our competitive cost structures.
[ Reports about ] the Grattan Institute’ s recent study have highlighted that university fees from international students are making up 72 per cent of fees charged by Australian educational institutions. The implication [ being ] that Australian universities are totally reliant on international student income. But when you factor in income from Commonwealth-supported places, you’ ll find that international student fees account for only about 18 per cent of total revenue at universities in Australia.
So we have to be careful when we release these important research reports that we don’ t have international media picking them up and saying:“ Look at Australia, totally reliant on international students to prop up their universities”.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE The lack of integration of domestic students and international students is well known. It’ s increasingly becoming apparent that international students are getting quite frustrated about it, and with the lack of genuine attempts by many private and public educational institutions to facilitate that integration.
In the latest International Student Barometer, Australia went backwards when it came to integration, from a 76 per cent satisfaction rate two years ago down to 73.5 per cent. So we’ re not doing well, compared with all the other wonderful report card survey results we’ re getting in many other areas. We’ re just not doing enough to integrate, and that includes employability skills provision.
IEAA has been quite passionate in working with the Council of International Students Australia to educate Australian employers and education providers on what they can be doing better to equip international students, not with a job necessarily, but with the skills to be more employable.
That includes concurrent English language learning while they’ re doing their principal course. It includes self-confidence building. It includes encouraging them from day one when they enrol at the career service, [ assisting with ] things like what co-curricular activities they should be engaged with [ straight away ], in the first week of their first year of study, rather than three years later when they appear at the door of the on-campus career service to ask advice.
That employability issue is going to become increasingly more important as a driver for the 4.5 million students, globally, who are leaving their home country each year to engage in international education.
GOVERNMENT POLICY AND REGULATION Clearly, both federal and state governments can do a great deal to encourage and a great deal to discourage internationalisation.
The [ Abbott ] government was the first federal government ever to have a co-ordinating ministerial council in international education. I’ m proud to be a member of that – we’ ve had our fourth meeting [ recently ] in Canberra and we’ re finalising the first ever national strategy for international education.
We’ ve [ had ] a silo effect among the Immigration Department, Education Department and Trade Department that’ s bedevilled international education in Australia. Some state governments still do not understand international education. The Western Australian Government is not embracing in any shape, manner or form any state-based international education strategy. New South Wales and Victoria, though, are doing some fantastic work in that area.
GOVERNANCE AND REORGANISATION It seems every time we have a new vice-chancellor, they feel the need to go and employ a big four accounting firm to do a reorganisation. Unfortunately, the hiatuses and morale problems that creates for staff are a constant challenge.
This is particularly challenging for international education, because we seem to have two models: you either have a strong central international education office with the faculty depending on it, or you farm out internationalisation strategy entirely to the faculties and you have a small international education office.
One vice-chancellor was recently overheard referring to the international education office at his university as‘ the baggage handlers’. You can imagine what that does for the morale of international education professionals.
So while we can blame government, stale curriculums or the lack of diversity in markets, we also have to look at ourselves as education providers. We must look at our governance and our organisational structures and ask whether they are hitting the mark.
The best universities and education providers have a strong central international education office, but also strong active faculty members, working hand in glove.
That’ s the way forward for international education in Australia. ■
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