Indian Students in Australia

Times of India reports :

Over the years, Australia has become attractive to students in India as more and more persons want to study abroad, but most do not find entry into US or UK universities because of paucity of seats and also because of stricter entrance rules, including visa rules.

In 2004, 21,000 students flew to Australia. The number of students flying to US and UK in the same year was comparatively lower at about 17,000 and 15,000, respectively.

In 2003, about 18,000 students had enrolled themselves in US universities, 10,000 went to UK and 14,400 students went to Australia. Students going to Australia used to be lower than those going to the US and UK in previous years.

Henry A Ledlie from IDP in Delhi talks about the change in VISA rules :

The policies have eased a little in terms of its processing. But now the process at the Australian Embassy here can take a longer time as it will now be managed electronically. Earlier the visa process used to take about six weeks of time, now it is advisable to start at least 10 weeks before a student leaves for Australia.

The Hindu captures the numbers best :

The recent figures released by IDP Education Australia, a not-for-profit company owned by Australian universities to promote Australian education globally, shows that 12,932 student visas were issued in India in 2004, a 53 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

Of this, the number of visas issued to those pursuing Masters and Doctorates in Australia upto September 2004 was 7,010 compared to 5,126 issued in the same period in 2003. This makes Indian post-graduate student numbers definitely the largest on campus.

Of them 45 per cent opted for I.T related courses followed by 31 per cent for business and 13 per cent for engineering programmes.

The following numbers are the most interesting according to me.

Indians constitute a significant portion even if the enrolment figures for different disciplines are taken into account: 4,519 students opted for Computer Science and I.T courses; all other international students totalled 6,370. The figures for business management and administration were 3,164 (Indian students) and 22,507. For engineering and surveying the figures were 1,347 (Indians) and 4,139 (other international students).

41.5% of all international post graduate students in IT and Computer Science courses in Australia are from India. Some 24.5% study other engineering courses. However, the business programs are different. Only 12.3% of the entire post graduate international student population are from India.

This shows the clear preference for IT courses in India and Indian students. In a sense this is what also made a lot of my family and friends believe that I may not be taking the right step as a large majority of the Indian students study engineering and IT courses.

The international post graduate student population in Australia excluding Indians is is 33,016 and almost 70% of international students (22,507) study business courses in Australia. Whereas 35% of post graduate Indian students opted for business courses in Australia.

This clearly shows that Australia is a favoured destination for business courses for International students except Indians. And though I am an Indian I am joining a business course!