Australia rebounding as popular education destination for Indians

Australia is fast rebounding as a popular education destination for Indian students as their enrollments during the first four months in 2015 jumped to over 48,000 as compared to nearly 37,000 during same period in 2014.

India continued to maintain second rank after China in supplying international students to the universities and institutes in Australia.

The total number of students during first four months (January-April) in 2015 stood at 48,311 as compared to 36,964 during the same period in 2014. The sector where the enrollments rose was the higher education where the number stood at 25,439 during January- April as compared to 17,694 during similar period last year. Enrollments in Vocational Education and Training sector (VET) from India during the same period jumped from 16,772 last year to over 18,350 this year.

Of all the states, Victoria recorded the highest number of Indian students for higher education at over 11,000 enrolments during January-April this year, up from 7,611 enrolments during similar period last year.

Melbourne based Consul general of India Monika Jain said Victoria's trade with India was very positive in education sector and Indian students market in the Australian state was really picking up. "Victoria received largest number of students from India followed by New South Wales (NSW)," Jain added.

Many Australian states including NSW and Victoria have been working on strengthening their economic relationship with India by outlining ways to boost trade and investment especially in education sector. In a bid to tap Indian students market, NSW Labour leader Luke Foley recently demanded opening doors to thousands of Indian students over coming years to Australia.

"India is turning to the world to help them meet their aim of up-skilling half a billion people," he said, adding, "There is an opportunity for TAFE (Technical And Further Education) NSW to be part of it, providing training to hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of Indians." Foley said TAFE had "put a toe in the water" in this area but should dramatically increase its activities in India and other countries. "Exporting its training expertise provides TAFE with the ability to earn a return which can then be invested in rebuilding the TAFE system for the people of NSW," he said.

According to Intaj Khan, a private training college owner who also owns a school, number of factors changed the Indian enrolments like easier student visa assessment levels, streamlined visa processing and also relaxed employment restrictions.