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Student enrolments surge
Overseas student enrolments in Australian educational institutions have surged 10% year-to-date May 2014. This growth rate is over twice the average growth rate in the last ten years with there now being 404,909 enrolments by full-fee paying international students in Australia on a student visa, according to the Monthly Summary of International Student Enrolment Data from the Department of Education.
Notably, the VET sector saw a year-to-date 13% increase in commencements after a 5.9% increase in enrollments.
The report notes that the Vocational Education and Training (VET) accounted for 23.6% of total enrolments and 27.0% of total commencements. Enrolments and commencements in VET increased by 5.9% and 18.0% respectively on YTD May 2013. India had the largest share of total enrolments (18.6%) and of total commencements (16.2%). China accounted for the next largest share of enrolments with 9.9%, followed by the Republic of Korea (7.8%) and Thailand (7.0%).
“The boost spells good news for the sector considering a recent Students and Courses report released by the state-owned National Centre for Vocational Education Research revealed that overseas visa holders studying onshore in 2013 dropped 1.7% year-on-year at TAFE and government providers, multi-sector HE institutions, community providers and private providers,” states a report by Professionals in International Education
Overseas visa students studying onshore in VET fell from 208,300 in 2009 to just 135,200 in 2013 despite continuing to represent one-quarter of all student visa holders in Australia.
The Department of Education’s May snapshot however shows a strong first half of 2014 with year-to-date enrolments reaching 95, 463 compared to 90,110 in May 2013.
Last year saw the country’s VET sector struggling with dwindling domestic numbers and a continuation of downward trend in international student numbers that started in 2009 when the automatic link between VET training and migrant rights was axed.
Stakeholders now attribute the fall between 2009 and 2013 to a mismatch between course costs and employment at home for the overseas cohort as well as diminishing government subsidies for VET providers.
The full report is located here: https://aei.gov.au/research/International-Student-Data/Documents/Monthly%20summaries%20of%20international%20student%20enrolment%20data%202014/05_May_2014_MonthlySummary.pdf
Immigration blog
That is an interesting article. I have been trying to convince some fellow migration agents that Higher Education is still a valid pathway to Permanent Residence and that they a significant market for Migration advice and assistance. Most of them just say it is too hard.
Thanks for posting the information.