Educators optimistic as ‘green shoots’ emerge

THE Western Australian education sector is pinning its hopes on changes to the nation’s visa system to help revive growth in the foreign student market.

In 2011, the most recent full academic year, the state had total foreign student enrolments of 53,300 worth about $1.3 billion, putting education up in the top handful of export sectors.

However that number, which represents about 42,600 actual students, is down from the 2009 peak of 54,966; since that time, economic and political issues have damaged Australia’s competitiveness and reputation as one of the leading educators of foreign students.

While the sector has plateaued somewhat, it still remains more than 60 per cent above the 32,805 enrolments in WA in 2003.

WA was a leader in the field until the past decade, with innovative universities, English language colleges, and bridging course providers.

Among the leading early players were Curtin University, which still retains a big foreign student contingent and was an early adopter of offshore campuses, and listed education group Navitas, now a world leader with a market capitalisation of nearly $1.6 billion.

The rest of Australia has caught up, however, and WA’s educators, more or less, are represented in the market on a basis proportional to the domestic population.

Unfortunately, that has left the state vulnerable to issues that arose elsewhere, such as a crackdown on visa scams and concerns around the treatment of Indian students in Melbourne after what appeared to be attacks motivated by racism.

At the same time as these political issues made Australia less attractive as a destination, economic factors made the industry less competitive. The rising Australian dollar caused local institutions to become more expensive than, arguably, more prestigious options in markets such as Britain and the US, where cash-strapped institutions started more aggressively competing for foreign students.

In WA the result of that has been some significant erosion of market share in key markets, notably China and Malaysia, the state’s top two sources of foreign students.

Figures obtained by WA Business News indicate Malaysia has declined about 15 per cent over the past two years, while China is down 8-9 per cent over the same period. In Malaysia, local education providers have to compete with increasing numbers of rival universities that have opened campuses there, much as Australian institutions – such as Curtin, which has a campus in the state of Sarawak – did some time ago.

Perth Education City CEO Mike Ryan believes the difficult economic and political conditions have forced local operators to work harder to promote their wares, reaching out to second-tier cities in China, for instance, and using social media; but he believes there is some good news in the latest data from August this year.

Mr Ryan notes that for the first time in a couple of years more markets were growing than declining, including a few surprises like Japan, which had been shrinking long before the GFC.

“Yes there some green shoots,” he said.

“We are probably over the worst of the trough.”

Another area offering positive news was a change in the composition of the Indian market. While generally oriented towards the vocational training sector, Indians enrolling in higher education leapt 26 per cent for the year to date ending in August, compared to the previous corresponding period.

Mr Ryan said players in the market were pinning their hopes on new streamlining visa processes, which put the onus of assessment on universities and enhanced post study work visa for university graduates.   

In his annual report remarks released last week Navitas CEO Rod Jones also highlighted the visa changes.

“Though too early to accurately quantify, these changes are beginning to provide some benefit,” Mr Jones said.

“However there are some challenges in implementation and it will take some time for the full outcomes and implications to be known.”