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Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory is the easiest
university to get the figures for. I calculated the regional economic
impact of foreign students on the Northern Territory economy,
partly countering the Grattan argument and pointing out that this
university was earning significant export dollars.
Can you paint us a picture of what you found out about the
international student market in the Northern Territory?
Charles Darwin University is a late-comer to international
education. It took its first foreign students in 1999. The numbers
grew slowly to 2009, but in recent years there has been a strong
effort to [expand] the cohort. I estimated that in 2014 international
students at Charles Darwin University put about $51 million a year
into the Northern Territory economy, which made international
education the 10th-largest export sector of the Northern Territory.
You expect this figure to swell to $151 million – how have
you calculated this?
Like everything [this growth] will have to be designed and
helped. But I expect it to come from two sources: a steady
growth of about 10 per cent a year in international students
and a steady growth of 5 per cent a year in course fees. The
growth in international student numbers is feasible because
there is plenty of accommodation for international students and
there are plenty of developers willing to build more. Secondly,
regarding fee growth, [Charles Darwin] is one of a small number
of universities where, over the decade to 2014, fees went down
in real international cost terms (International Parity Pricing) –
largely because fees were not raised and the Australian dollar
appreciated to parity with the US dollar. International students in
2014 (the focus year of my study) were facing lower costs to study
at CDU than they were in 2012. Even with subsequent fee rises in
Australian dollars, that still holds in 2016.
So through maintained lower fees, CDU will attract more
students and bring in growth?
Yes, because firstly, Charles Darwin University is one of a small
number of Australian universities that is a dual-sector institution. It
has VET as well as higher education, so it can develop integrative
approaches to attracting international students. It can allow them
easier transitioning paths from, say, ELICOS – which is a shortterm English language course – into VET or higher education or
[whatever]. CDU has certain advantages in terms of attracting
students and also has quite wisely invested a surplus of extracts
from international students. It has [improved] its research rankings
quite dramatically in the last five years and is increasingly able
to compete on prestige in some areas, although it will never be
as prestigious as the Go8 universities. Those sorts of factors are
important in certain subjects.
From what countries do you expect these international students
to come?
Mostly south-east Asia. CDU doesn’t attract a high number of
Chinese or Indian students. Indian students mostly [attend] a joint
operation that runs in Melbourne. Chinese students are more likely
to go to universities in large cities. We’re attracting students from
mostly south-east and south Asia. Not so much India, but other
countries, such as Nepal, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Why does CDU attract these students but not those from places
such as China or India?
I’m not too sure. I’ve never seen surveys, but based on anecdotal
evidence, the Chinese and Indian [students] are more concerned
with prestige and also are more attracted to large cities. An
Indonesian student said to me once about Darwin