Study in Australia

Australian Education International (AEI) is the Commonwealth's body responsible for promoting Australian education internationally, and supporting the Australian international education industry's export efforts.

AEI's work is helping to establish Australia as a world-renowned provider of the highest quality vocational education and training (VET) courses to a large and increasing number of students from other countries.

Over 30,000 of the more than 153,000 international students who studied in Australia in 2000 were enrolled in VET courses. (Although exact numbers are not known at this stage, a large number of students are also enrolled in Australian VET courses being delivered outside Australia - in China and a number of other countries.)

International VET students in Australia are drawn predominantly from the markets shown below.

Top 10 Source Countries - 2000
Source country / VET enrolments
1. India
2. Indonesia
3. Korea (South)
4. Japan
5. Hong Kong
6. China
7. Sri Lanka
8. Thailand
9. Malaysia
10. Nepal        

In contrast to the pattern of enrolments among Australian students, just under three quarters of international VET students in Australia are enrolled in private VET institutions.

Around 6 in 10 international VET students in Australia are studying business, economics or administration. Around 2 in 10 are studying computer science or information technology.

The vast majority (75%) of international VET students study Diploma or Advanced Diploma courses.

Last year, international VET students contributed an estimated $800 million to the Australian economy in the form of course fees and expenditure on food, accommodation and other goods and services.

Australia is a great place for international students to study. The quality of our education and training (with the advantage of courses being taught in English) is internationally recognised. We have excellent teaching and facilities.

Australia is rightly perceived to be a safe, friendly, multicultural, modern and technologically advanced society. Study here is also relatively affordable.

In addition, international students are attracted to study VET in Australia because it develops real skills required for contemporary workplaces and, very significantly for half or more of these students, because VET study is part of a recognised pathway to a university degree - the ultimate goal for the great majority of international students studying in Australia.

The VET experience in Australia is a rewarding one for most international students. A survey undertaken by AEI in 1999 showed that 89% of international students completing a VET course were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of education in Australia, and 86% would recommend or strongly recommend study in Australia to others at home.

The internationalisation of our VET system brings a range of important benefits to Australia. The presence of international students enriches the study experiences of Australian students. It builds cross-cultural skills, a valuable commodity in the global labour market. It strengthens the foundation for global interactions and relations, in trade, politics and many other spheres of life.

It improves the quality of VET in Australia in many ways for example, by: exerting pressure to keep Australian institutions at the leading edge of innovation and quality assurance; enhancing the VET system's capacity to respond to the special needs of people from languages other than English backgrounds; providing revenue which helps sustain a high quality national training system; and enabling VET professionals to internationalise their teaching and other skills, through developing programs which respond to international needs and, increasingly, through participation in projects offshore.

For these reasons, international involvement has become an important part of the operations and outlook of Australian VET institutions. A clear indicator of this growing orientation is the fact that there are now over 500 Australian institutions delivering VET courses, and over 7,000 VET courses, registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).

Australian VET has much to offer the world and the benefits flow strongly in both directions.