Indian student market collapsing

Luke Slattery and Andrew Trounson | July 30, 2009
Article from:  The Australian

THE Indian student market is showing early signs of collapse, with the recruitment body IDP Education Australia reporting an 80 per cent fall in appointments by students at its 14 Indian offices.

A severe fall in applications from Indian students for training diplomas and certificates would lead to widespread closures in the vocational sector of the type seen in Sydney and Melbourne over the past fortnight.

IDP chief executive Tony Pollock yesterday conceded that a "head-count" survey conducted late last month had revealed an 80 per cent decline in visits from prospective students to the organisation's Indian offices.

The Indian market is the sector's biggest growth area but is under threat amid the fall-out from a spate of assaults on Indian students and revelations that students are being exploited by unscrupulous private colleges and fraudulent agents.

At the same time, tightened immigration rules threaten to undermine Indian demand for the permanent residency-driven vocational sector.

Senior higher education administrators have been spooked by news of last month's collapse in demand , which was conveyed to them by IDP in a briefing on the export education industry's health.

Mr Pollock, however, told The Australian that the 80 per cent decline in "foot traffic" would not translate into an equivalent fall in enrolment applications unless the trend continued through the key recruitment months of September and October. He conceded there would be a "softening" in the Indian market for Australian qualifications and a "significant softening" in demand for diplomas and certificates as a result of changes to government policy.

The International Education Association of Australia, which represents the international student business arms of universities, cautioned that it was too early to be drawing conclusions on Indian demand.

"There are some signs that inquiry rates and participation in exhibitions are down at the moment, but it is too early to say," IEAA executive director Dennis Murray told The Australian. "There isn't any evidence yet that there will be a slowdown in the first half of 2010."

But Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis said the sector was worried.

"We are all hearing that the number of students (from India) applying to come to Australia is going to fall sharply in 2010," hesaid.

"If that happens, for institutions that have a significant number of Indian students this will be a significant problem."

He said that while Melbourne had the nation's highest proportion of students on one campus, Indian students made up only a relatively small proportion.

Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday acknowledged that some educational institutions were providing "sub-standard" service to foreign students.

Ms Gillard said the government was working to rub out poor practices that had come to the fore of debate about whether Australia was meeting its obligations to international students. She will visit India later this year to discuss the issue, as will Trade Minister Simon Crean and possibly Kevin Rudd.

Ms Gillard is calling for students to take part in a roundtable she will convene in Canberra in September.

She admitted there were problems in the sector.

"There are some operators who have caused problems and we want to address that," Ms Gillard told ABC Radio.

"But I don't accept ... this is a broad brush across all of the international education industry. It's not."

RMIT's head of international Madeleine Reeve said there hadn't been any downturn for the second semester, and enrolments were "on track." But he said that "from our sources in India there is an expectation that there will be a reduction in demand in 2010".

RMIT has 10,000 international students, of whom 700 are from India.