Record jump in Indians lodged in Australia
Record jump in Indians lodged in Australia - Indian Express
Australia has recorded a jump in 'offshore lodgements' by Indian nationals by witnessing a rise of over 150 per cent during July-September quarter 2011 as compared to similar period last year.
"This quarter, offshore lodgements from Indian nationals increased significantly. The Department received 2,900 applications, which represented a 153.9 per cent increase compared the same period in 2010," the latest report of immigration department said.
"This growth was mostly driven by an increase in Higher Education sector applications," it noted.
Chinese students for this year's quarter stood at 15,354 while the third market, Korea, yielded just 3000 applications.
However, of the total 80 per cent of the Indian applications were lodged by people already in Australia, mainly students wanting to begin new courses. "We're hearing anecdotally that [Indian] students are interested in applying again for postgraduate coursework studies and those sorts of things," according to Swinburne University pro vice-chancellor Jeffrey Smart who was quoted by 'The Australian' newspaper recently.
Smart said Swinburne's third intake this year had seen an increase in Indian undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students. But he said the third intake was generally too small to draw conclusions about enrolment trends.
He also said institutions should avoid an over-reliance on the subcontinent. "We'll never get back to the dizzy days of India under the old visa regime, and I think that's a good thing."
Alison Owens, director of the International Education Research Centre at Central Queensland University, said there was evidence of increasing diversity in the international students coming to Australia.
She said this was good, and not just because of the reduced risk to providers' revenue streams. "New groups are emerging, for example from South America and eastern Europe. That's precisely the kind of trend [we're] looking for. It's nice to have a blend for the whole cultural experience -- not just the anti-risk factors," he said.
It is also said that while grant rates to offshore Indian applicants are at 45 per cent, lower to an average of 85 per cent, India was still second strongest international education market for onshore Australian education.
In the past, enrolments from India have taken a toll because of a combination of factors including skilled migration changes, college closures, the strong Australian dollar, violence against students and Australia's tough student visa regime.
The official figures of Year-to-date enrolments from India have recorded a plunge of over 40 per cent compared to the peak year of 2009.
India's share of the total have dropped from 19 to 13 per cent.
