Australia boosts its education exports to neighbors
By Dewi Anggraeni
MELBOURNE (JP): If you knew you had a good product at a competitive price which had been yielding tidy profits, wouldn't you want to develop the product and increase its sales? You would? Well that's what Australia is doing. The product is education.
At present there are 141,059 overseas students studying in Australia, with 53,819 in tertiary institutions. They bring in an annual income of US$2 billion to the country.
It is no surprise therefore, that Victorian state government took the initiative in organizing a high profile delegation of 40 educators to visit Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam this month. The delegation, led by Phil Honeywood, Victoria's minister for tertiary education and training is scheduled to meet with Indonesia's minister of education and culture and minister for manpower next week.
The mission, while no doubt driven by the business minded Jeff Kennett, the state premier, has other objectives. Honeywood, who has been planning the visit since taking office a year ago, told The Jakarta Post that he wanted to build cultural bridges with the Australia's Southeast Asian neighbors. Having lived and studied in Japan himself for several years, Honeywood believes that one effective way of linking cultures is through international education.
"And Australians can no longer take for granted that Southeast Asian students would come to Australia to complete their tertiary education. Governments and parents increasingly want their children to be educated at home. So we'll try to develop a way where they can start their tertiary education at home, then complete the final years in Australia."
Honeywood and his group would also like to see Australian students completing the final years of their tertiary education in a Southeast Asian country after finishing their first degree at home. They are thus hoping to sign twinning agreements with universities and other tertiary institutions in these countries.
What they are hoping to achieve is a clear pathway, where students can effect these transitions smoothly, and that the higher degrees they subsequently obtain will be recognized in both countries. This will not only widen their personal perspectives, but also enhance their employability. And eventually, these graduates will hopefully play important roles in bilateral relationships of their countries.
Another fast track the group wants to build is in linking vocational education with university degrees.
Apart from revenues, Australia benefits by the enhancement of its own education industry. The international education programs necessitate training more academics with inter-cultural sensibility. "Some tertiary institutions still operate at a loss, but they realize it is a long term investment," said Honeywood, adding, "It also breaks down the section in Australian community that has been very Anglo-centric and resistant to change."
The concept of taking Australian students to study in another country has indeed been initiated by a Victorian tertiary institution, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Last year it opened Adorna RMIT overseas campus in Penang, Malaysia, with 311 enrollments. This year, the new enrollments included 13 Australian students to study in Malaysia. RMIT management hopes that eventually its Adorna campus will attract students from other countries in the region. At present, in its Melbourne campus, there are 2,360 Indonesian students studying in a variety of subjects.
The fields offered by Australian education are mostly in business skills, computer skills, science and engineering, science and technology, communications, and increasingly, in tourism and hospitality skills.
Some of its leaders say that Australia has, has been opening its doors and hearts, and accepting other cultures to live alongside the predominantly Anglo-Celtic population. The process has gone beyond the odd Chinese or Indian restaurant in the city and suburbs, and performances of exotic dances at specific celebrations. Asian languages are taught in a number of primary schools, giving children the opportunity to learn about another culture at a very young age. It is hoped that these children will naturally continue learning the language and culture at secondary school level.
Indonesian is among the languages taught in primary and secondary schools, and among students from Southeast Asian countries studying in Australia, those from Indonesia dominate in numbers, 16,701 students in 1996. This seems natural as Indonesia is the closest neighbor, after Papua New Guinea.
The writer is a free-lance journalist based in Melbourne.