Aussie News - Issue 24 - March 2007
Current Issues
AUSTRALIA COMMITTED TO ENSURING QUALITY EDUCATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Australia continues to be one of the world’s most popular destinations for international students. The Australian Government is committed to ensuring that international students receive a high quality education. Over the past 18 months the Australian Government has enhanced the Education Services for Overseas Students legislative framework to provide even greater protection for international students and ensure that existing high standards are maintained.
The Australian Government continues to work with universities to ensure that the quality of our $10.1 billion international education industry, our fourth largest export, is maintained. Australia is one of the few countries in the world where safeguards designed to protect international students are based on legislation.
The Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 includes a National Code that allows the Government to monitor quality issues and ensures institutions maintain high standards of education and that students visa requirements are met. The standards in the National Code apply equally to public and private universities and cover issues such as teaching staff qualifications, facilities and specialist equipment.
Ongoing checks and controls by Commonwealth and State and Territory governments, higher education institutions and professional bodies also ensure high standards are maintained. Dozens of countries use the Australian quality assurance system as a best practice model.
Australian universities are self-accrediting institutions and are responsible for the quality of the courses they offer and the degrees they confer. They are responsible for ensuring that international students have a sufficient level of English language ability to be able to complete their course of study. The onus is on universities themselves to ensure that appropriate standards are met at the commencement of, and throughout a course of study. Australia has an international reputation for best practice in accreditation, qualifications recognition, and quality assurance and student consumer protection.
IMMIGRATION: 131,000 NEW ARRIVALS NOW CALL AUSTRALIA HOME
More than 131,000 people from overseas chose to make Australia their new home in 2005-2006, an increase of about 8,000 on the previous year. Announcing the 2005-06 new settler figures in January, the Australian Minister for Immigration, Ms Senator Amanda Vanstone, said that the largest number of new settlers came from the United Kingdom - with 23,290 choosing to make Australia their new home and increase of about 5,000 on last year. Senator Vanstone said the majority of new arrivals entered Australia through the family and skill streams of the migration programme.
These comments were certainly reflected in the statistics for Mauritius with 75 people migrating under the family migration scheme, while a further 183 Mauritians settled in Australia under the skilled migration scheme.
The Minister said that Australia’s migration target for 2006-2007 was about 140,000, including 97,500 in the work skill stream.
“That number does not include the 13,000 refugee and humanitarian entrants who will begin new lives in Australia through Australia’s humanitarian programme,” The Minister said.