News & Views item - September 2005

 

 

DEST and DFAT Launch Education Without Borders: International Trade in Education (September 7, 2005)

    The Department for Education, Science and Training today jointly launched with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade the report Education Without Borders: International Trade in Education  in order to "highlights the key role Australia is playing in the global education market that has emerged over the past two decade."

 

The joint media release by Federal Ministers Brendan Nelson and Alexander Downer makes the point that "Education is Australia's fourth largest export industry, and in 2004 international enrolments made up 15% of total revenues for Australian universities and 18% of total student enrolments in higher education."

 

Mr Downer observed, "Australia is regarded as a safe and friendly destination, a sophisticated and technologically-advanced society, with a reputation for quality, excellence, and reliability in education services. In addition, Australian institutions have been establishing campuses offshore and creating innovative partnerships in other countries to successfully deliver courses in students’ home countries."

 

Dr Nelson emphasised, "Asia is Australia’s most important regional market for education exports, and will continue to provide unprecedented opportunities for Australia, as Asian incomes grow and higher education takes on increasing prominence. In terms of international student spending Australia’s top eight markets measured on fees are in Asia. China is Australia’s largest source of foreign students with almost 70,000 students enrolled in Australian institutions in 2004. The Australian Government is committed to the sustainable growth of Australia’s international education services. We are showcasing our capabilities through the Australian Education International Network in Australia’s diplomatic missions and are continuing to provide exciting opportunities through Australian Development Scholarships and the Endeavour Scholarship Programme."

 

This past June the ABC's Four Corners ran "The Degree Factories" which with the material it put to air and the additional material made available on its web site painted a critical picture of "the depths of today's university crisis and asks what sort of education can tomorrow's students expect?" The searching questions with which  Four Corners probed and the penetrating answer it got from academics and administrators left little doubt that Australia's tertiary education sector was under immanent and severe challenge as to the quality of its "product" and its future ability to attract students from Asia in particular and the rest of the world in general.

Four Corners Q. With the level of public funding that they’ve got at the moment – do you think Australian universities have the ability to keep up with the massive investments in Asia in universities?

Professor Allan Luke Foundation Dean, at the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore A. No I think that at present Australian universities are both under-funded by government and also are not able to access the private endowment and the tax break kind of support that the large American universities and many of the other endowed universities are. So they’re kind of stuck in many ways. The current investment of Singapore is about four per cent of GDP...

Not withstanding, Dr Nelson continues to reduce the universities' ability to provide top undergraduate and graduate education and skirmishes with them is such ways to distract them from the lead in research and learning they must provide to the nation if it can meet the challenges of the coming decades.