AAP General News (Australia)
04-01-2009
FED: Jobs will go if international students stay away: report
CANBERRA, April 1 AAP - More than 6,000 jobs will be lost if overseas student enrolments
drop five per cent amid the global financial crisis, new research shows.
International tertiary students spent $14.1 billion on education services in 2007-08
and contributed a further $12.6 billion spent on goods and services.
Their total contribution of $26.7 billion to the Australian economy includes money
spent by visiting family and friends, the Access Economics report suggests.
The export education market creates 126,240 local jobs, the report says.
But 6,312 of those jobs would vanish if the sector suffered a five per cent drop in
overseas enrolments as a result of the deepening global recession, the report estimates.
The blow to the economy would be in the order of $1.3 billion.
The Rudd government is worried about a potential decline in numbers, having announced
last month it would spend $3.5 million trying to attract international students to Australia
next year.
The Study in Australia 2010 campaign will target students in countries including China,
India, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand during the next eight months.
However, the doom and gloom scenario may not play out.
Recent figures show international students are still coming to Australia to study despite
the global recession.
In the 12 months to January 2009, enrolments by full-fee-paying international students
jumped 21.4 per cent over the previous year.
However, those figures need to be taken with a grain of salt, because most commencements
in the first half of any year are normally recorded in February and March.
The Access Economics report, commissioned by the Australian Council for Private Education
and Training, states 207,000 overseas students studied in Australia in 2006.
That's 7.5 per cent of the entire global market.
AAP jcd/rl/jl
KEYWORD: EDUCATION
2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
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