STUDENTS are turning away from tertiary education courses in Victoria, with applications to study at TAFE plummeting by almost 10 per cent.
International year 12 student applications have slumped by 6 per cent this year, which will alarm universities because they depend on international student fees to subsidise domestic places.
Mature-age applications and graduate-entry teaching applications also plunged by 8.7 per cent.
Despite the fall in applications, the overall number of students who received tertiary offers - 75,781- was up 2.5 per cent from last year, according to the Victorian Tertiary Admission Centre.
Of those who applied to study at university, 82 per cent received an offer.
Poor and disadvantaged students were clear winners, with university offers to students from low socio-economic backgrounds increasing by 8 per cent, following the higher participation targets set by the federal government after the 2008 Bradley review of higher education.
The government has set a national target of 20 per cent of students at university coming from low socio-economic backgrounds by 2020.
It is also pushing for the overall number of students attending university to rise. University enrolment caps have been increased in recent years, and will be scrapped next year.
The government wants 40 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds to hold a bachelor degree by 2025, up from the current 29 per cent.
While university applications fell by 1.3 per cent in Victoria, TAFE and private tertiary colleges were most severely hit, receiving 8.7 per cent and 7 per cent fewer applications respectively.
University of Melbourne associate professor Leesa Wheelahan said when the economy was doing well there was less demand for tertiary education because it was easier to get a job.
She also said universities were poaching students because of the drop in international students and the new demand-led higher education system, which would lead to the cap on university enrolments being lifted next year.
''Universities are trying to get a bigger share of enrolments and cannibalising students who would normally apply to TAFE,'' she said.
Professor Wheelahan said the former state government's controversial shake-up of vocational education could also have cut TAFE applications, with fees for higher qualifications almost tripling and HECS-style loans introduced.
''I don't think the Victorian government has done a particularly good job of explaining income-contingent loans,'' she said.
The University of Melbourne this year offered 6000 new undergraduate places, more than ever and an 8 per cent increase on 2010. The number of offers it made to students from low socio-economic backgrounds jumped from 325 to 606, while offers to rural students increased from 659 to 754.
Acting vice-chancellor Professor Susan Elliott said the increase in overall offers, especially for disadvantaged students, was partly a response to the federal government's call for better university access for all students but also an essential part of the university's Melbourne Model. Under the model, students study a broad undergraduate degree and specialise at postgraduate level.
But when asked whether the government's growth agenda was sustainable, University of Melbourne senior vice-principal Ian Marshman said it was a serious issue for research-intensive universities such as Melbourne.
''In one sense the whole of the system has been living off the benefits of international student enrolments,'' he said. ''If there is some real hiccup in that area, it's going to make quite a big difference.''
Mr Marshman said his university received an average $16,000 for a Commonwealth-supported domestic student place and about $28,000 in fees from an international student, when the average cost of educating a student was more than $20,000, ''so there is actually a direct cross-subsidy from fee-paying students''.
''It's providing disincentives to institutions to enrol significant numbers of additional domestic students because they are losing money,'' he said.
The standard cutoff score to get into arts at the University of Melbourne was 88, down from 89 last year, and 85.05 for science, down from 89.05
by Jewel Topsfield
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Monday 17 January 2011
Friday 7 January 2011
Australian Universities hit hard by slump in foreign students
A slump in the number of international students coming to Australia is causing major problems for universities reliant on full-fee-paying students.
The latest Federal Government figures show a 1.4 per cent decline in enrolments since this time last year for a sector that has grown almost 11 per cent a year for the past eight years.
International students make up about a quarter of all university enrolments in Australia, so any reduction in intake has a serious impact on the bottom line.
Monash University is Australia's largest university and has more international students than any other.
Vice-chancellor Professor Ed Byrne says enrolments in English language courses at Monash College are down 30 per cent.
With half of those students typically migrating to full-fee-paying university places, that is a substantial loss of income.
"For next year, we're about $40 million on the income side away from where we'd hoped to be," he said.
Monash has just approved 359 redundancies to improve its budget forecast for next year.
Jennie Lang is pro-vice-chancellor international at the University of New South Wales. She says the decline in student numbers is worrying.
"In some instances, the downturn will initially be small and will be handled on the margins. In other universities it will be catastrophic," she said.
China is Australia's biggest market for international students, with India a close second.
Government data shows Indian student enrolments are down 17 per cent on this time last year.
The high Australian dollar has increased competition from the US and UK, but Ms Lang says recent changes to immigration rules are also to blame.
"There's been really significant problems about the messages we used in the election campaign to do with migration and whether or not Australia wants to grow its population," she said.
"That's been interpreted in our major source countries in Asia as Australia now sort of moving away from having international students and migrants."
'Perceived racism'
Ms Lang says there is also a perception that Australia is not as welcoming as it could be to international students.
"We've been picking that up in a number of countries that we've been visiting this year," she said.
Spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, Gautam Gupta, agrees with the assessment.
"I think everything plays a role. High Australian dollar obviously contributes, as for migration laws again, definitely a reason," he said.
"The biggest problem is the lack of confidence in the Australian Government and the lack of ability to stem the increasing violence."
Professor Byrne agrees perceived racism against Indian students has had an impact.
"We have a really good idea of this because of interviews with students and with our many agents throughout Asia," he said.
"So in South Asia, initially there were cultural safety factors as perceived in India. Now they've been addressed very vigorously by the Federal Government and by the university sector.
"I think cultural safety and a mutual understanding is being built up. It will take a few years to completely get over that hiccup but we'll get there.
"The Indian market was also very migration-focused and the new migration criteria I think have affected that market also."
But Professor Byrne is hopeful the downturn is not indicative of a long-term trend and that enrolment numbers from all overseas markets will have improved by 2013.
"I don't think there is going to be a decline in the long run," he said.
"Remember that the number of people who live in families that can afford university education privately in Asia is predicted to grow from something like 300 million today to over 1.4 billion in 10 years' time.
"The current international student market from Asia, especially China, is growing at more than 30 per cent a year and I think that's predicted to continue into the future.
"So this market is going to grow internationally for many, many years."
Source: ABC news by Anna Hipsley
The latest Federal Government figures show a 1.4 per cent decline in enrolments since this time last year for a sector that has grown almost 11 per cent a year for the past eight years.
International students make up about a quarter of all university enrolments in Australia, so any reduction in intake has a serious impact on the bottom line.
Monash University is Australia's largest university and has more international students than any other.
Vice-chancellor Professor Ed Byrne says enrolments in English language courses at Monash College are down 30 per cent.
With half of those students typically migrating to full-fee-paying university places, that is a substantial loss of income.
"For next year, we're about $40 million on the income side away from where we'd hoped to be," he said.
Monash has just approved 359 redundancies to improve its budget forecast for next year.
Jennie Lang is pro-vice-chancellor international at the University of New South Wales. She says the decline in student numbers is worrying.
"In some instances, the downturn will initially be small and will be handled on the margins. In other universities it will be catastrophic," she said.
China is Australia's biggest market for international students, with India a close second.
Government data shows Indian student enrolments are down 17 per cent on this time last year.
The high Australian dollar has increased competition from the US and UK, but Ms Lang says recent changes to immigration rules are also to blame.
"There's been really significant problems about the messages we used in the election campaign to do with migration and whether or not Australia wants to grow its population," she said.
"That's been interpreted in our major source countries in Asia as Australia now sort of moving away from having international students and migrants."
'Perceived racism'
Ms Lang says there is also a perception that Australia is not as welcoming as it could be to international students.
"We've been picking that up in a number of countries that we've been visiting this year," she said.
Spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, Gautam Gupta, agrees with the assessment.
"I think everything plays a role. High Australian dollar obviously contributes, as for migration laws again, definitely a reason," he said.
"The biggest problem is the lack of confidence in the Australian Government and the lack of ability to stem the increasing violence."
Professor Byrne agrees perceived racism against Indian students has had an impact.
"We have a really good idea of this because of interviews with students and with our many agents throughout Asia," he said.
"So in South Asia, initially there were cultural safety factors as perceived in India. Now they've been addressed very vigorously by the Federal Government and by the university sector.
"I think cultural safety and a mutual understanding is being built up. It will take a few years to completely get over that hiccup but we'll get there.
"The Indian market was also very migration-focused and the new migration criteria I think have affected that market also."
But Professor Byrne is hopeful the downturn is not indicative of a long-term trend and that enrolment numbers from all overseas markets will have improved by 2013.
"I don't think there is going to be a decline in the long run," he said.
"Remember that the number of people who live in families that can afford university education privately in Asia is predicted to grow from something like 300 million today to over 1.4 billion in 10 years' time.
"The current international student market from Asia, especially China, is growing at more than 30 per cent a year and I think that's predicted to continue into the future.
"So this market is going to grow internationally for many, many years."
Source: ABC news by Anna Hipsley
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