Mauritian contribution to Australian economy
While around 200 countries sent students in Australia during 2008/ 09 financial- year, Mauritius was the 18 th largest contributor to Australia’s $ 17 billion international education industry, contributing a staggering $ 198 million ( Rs 4 milliards).
This is extraordinary for a country the size of Mauritius.
This latest figure has more than doubled from 2 years ago when the annual figure in 2006/ 07 year was $ 78m.
On the other hand, while Mauritian student numbers and contribution to the Australian economy is at a record high, at the same time the Australian government is under great pressure to clean up the international student market.
And one of the initiatives recently announced by the Australian government is a crackdown on student visa application overseas.
Stronger student visa application checks overseas have been imposed on several countries shown to have had unusually high double- digit growth over the last 2- 3 years.
Mauritius has been identified among these countries, along with India, Nepal, Brazil and others. In 2008, there were 2478 Australian student visas issued in Mauritius, 20% more than 2007.
Latest figures show that as of 30th September 2009, Mauritian student enrolment in Australia was at an all time record high counting almost 5,000, a 26% increase from a year ago. Of these, 68% or 3 386 are enrolled in the vocational education and training ( VET) sector. This compares to 36% of all international students in Australia that enrol in VET. As can be seen from these figures, the number of Mauritians in VET is significantly high.
Diploma courses
Mauritian students can be found in largest numbers in the State of Victoria with 2498 enrolments, 507 more than a year ago. 70% of them are enrolled in the VET sector.
Western Australia has the second largest number with 1387 enrolments, 362 more than a year ago.
Almost 62% of them are enrolled in the VET sector. And NSW has 908 enrolments, 130 more than a year ago with 74% in the VET sector.
These figures clearly show that the majority of Mauritian students in Australia are pursuing 2- year diploma courses rather than 3- year bachelor or higher degrees.
Students enrolling in the VET sector have two options: 1) The well- established, public TAFE institutes ( Technical and Further Education) across Australia, or 2) An array of private colleges varying in size, experience and service quality.
Amazingly, of the 197,000 international students enrolled in the VET sector in Australia, over 90% are at private colleges, with the remainder at the public TAFE institutes.
This extremely high concentration in private colleges provides an important clue as to where problems lie in the system, often evidenced by private colleges having no or minimum experience in the domain of education, inadequate proper facilities and services for students, as well as, oftentimes, delivering a substandard level of education.
While the number of Mauritians students in Australia is at an all time high, the latest figures also show that for the first time in 5 years, the number of new enrolments to year ending 30 th of September 2009 has begun to drop.
Rules of the game
Between September 2004 and September 2009, there were 555, 643, 892, 1162, 2388 and 2115 new enrolments among Mauritian students in Australia respectively. The increase enrolment trend can clearly be seen by these figures with a dramatic peak in 2008.
This trend is reversed for the first time as of September 2009 with 273 less new enrolments.
Other broader measures currently undertaken by the Australian government to clean up the international student market include: 1) A complete review of the international student legislation ( ESOS) with stricter measures due to be implemented in 2010, 2) An increase of $ 6000 to the minimum amount that applicants will have to show when applying for a student visa overseas.
The new amount required is now $ 18,000 3) A re- registration process of all private colleges with some undergoing a rapid audit 4) A proposal for the federal government to take over
from the states as regulator of the VET sector 5) Proposed changes in eligibility requirements when applying for permanent resident visas within Australia after completing studies.
The tighter student visa application measures overseas among others will result in lower visa application approvals and higher rejection rates in 2010.
With a record 2478 Australian student visas issued in Mauritius in 2008, numbers for 2009 and beyond are expected to drop due to these tighter measures now imposed by the Aus- tralian government, together with an expected drop in demand as Mauritians begin to realise that the rules of the game have changed. Mauritians will now have to think twice before forking out a non- refundable $ 540 ( around Rs15,000) visa application fee.
Sociologist School of Community and Health- Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne ( jmoutou@ swin. edu. au)
Random Posts
Posted by KotZot Journal Ile Maurice
on 10:23 pm Filed under Education.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
[...] the original post: Mauritian contribution to Australian economy | Mauritius News … Mauritius identified in Australian government student visa …Horse racing in MauritiusNew [...]