Australia, an ever attractive destination for International students

The number of international student enrolments in Australia has increased by 11% in the first quarter of 2015, according to the Media Release by the Minister of Education and Training. Statistics from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection show 84,007 visas being granted in the March 2015 quarter and this is an increase of 0.8 per cent compared with the March 2014 quarter. In terms of the student visa subclasses, total visa grants increased for most student visa subclasses.

Grants for Schools Sector (subclass 571) visas, VET sector (subclass 572) visas and Independent ELICOS (subclass 570) visas increased by 14.4 per cent 7.3 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively when compared with the same period in the previous year.

International student sector has been an important part of the Australian Economy. According to the Minister of Education and training “International education services is Australia’s third largest export and drives at least 130,000 full time equivalent jobs around Australia.”

There has also been nine per cent growth seen in English language courses enrolments and this is expected to include many international students who will proceed on to further study in Australia later in the year.

According to Austrade, China has been by far the largest market in terms of student enrolment (with 152,131 in the year 2015) followed by India (63,834 students enrolled in 2015). Other important markets include South Korea (24,609 students), Thailand (23,085 students), Malaysia (22,131 students), Brazil (19,038 students) and Indonesia (17,037 students).