24% dip in Indian students enrolling in Australia
Australia is witnessing a continuous dip in the numbers of International students. According to government data recorded during January-June 2012, the number of Indian students enrolling in Australia dropped by more than 24 per cent as compared to last year’s figures, reported the Times of India.
During this period, Australian education providers recorded 389,356 enrolments by full-fee international students on student visa with a drop of 8.5% as compared with the same period last year in sharp contrast with the average yearly growth rates of 6.6 per cent since 2002.
The decline is seen mainly in the vocational education sector with more than 14% dip during Jan-June 2012. The Australian government had earlier scrapped private vocational education for Indians. The Australian High Commissioner to India, Peter Varghese said that the main focus will be on encouraging students to go to Australia to pursue university programmes in general and for postgraduate programmes in particular. As far as vocational study is concerned, Australia is planning to deliver such courses in India through tie ups with various Indian institutes. (Read more)
Even though the number of enrolments from India totalled 42,049 till June as compared to last year’s 55,595, Indian students enrolling in Vocational and Education Training (VET) sector still ranks high in numbers at 31,326 as compared to other nationalities, contributing the largest share of total enrolments in the sector at 29.5%. According to the data, India is closely followed by China with 10.9% and Thailand comes third with 6.7%. (Read more)
