by DIRK MULDER

on-shore growth

 International Student Data Pivot Tables (YTD Feb 23) published by the Australian Government show commencements across all sectors are up 54 per cent against 2022 and 49 per cent against 2019.

Higher Education accounts for most of this, up 33 per cent against 2022 and 99.6 per cent compared to the same time in 2019.

In good signs for continuing its recovery, visa commencements in the English language sector are up 111 per cent against 2022 while VET is also up 70 per cent against last year.

NSW is 60 per cent against 2022 and 28 per cent on 2019. Victoria is up 40 per cent in total against 2022 and 117 per cent on 2019. Higher Ed in Victoria deserves a special mention, it is up 27 per cent against 2022 and a whopping 371 per cent against 2019. WA is up 86 per cent against 2022 and 31 per cent against 2019.

off-shore campuses

In March 2020 CQUniversity established its Jakarta campus, a partnership with Universitas Bakrie. This made CQUniversity the first Australia University Centre in Indonesia. Soon after Monash University announced it would become Indonesia’s first foreign-owned university with an in-country campus.

CQUniversity Vice Chancellor Nick Klomp on delivering program in Indonesia says “CQU has a longstanding tradition of bringing tertiary education and training to underserved communities, and our foray into Indonesia has been no different.”

Professor Klomp admits it hasn’t been all smooth sailing, saying “with the launch of our Jakarta executive training centre coinciding with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been challenges in our expansion into Indonesia, however we are taking a measured approach and I’m pleased to say we have already seen several cohorts graduate from our Indonesian programs.

“We continue to be guided by the IA-CEPA in identifying program opportunities that will resonate with the Indonesian market and the government’s admirably ambitious workforce targets.”

mobility

 The Australian Consortium for “In-Country” Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) has long been the focal point for Australian students’ mobility programs in Indonesia.

The programme, housed at UWA in Perth, was significantly impacted by COVID with no in-country study taking place in the second half of 2020, all of 2021 and the majority of 2022. Over this period, a suite of Indonesia-focused short format programmes were run entirely in virtual mode. The full programme returned to in-country Indonesia study in August 2022 with the first cohort of students completing August and December 2022.

ACICIS Consortium Director Liam Prince says it is now back on track with demand growing. “ACICIS delivered ten short format programme over the 2022/23 summer break–of durations ranging from two to six weeks–to a total national cohort of 325 students.”

And at the end of May, ACICIS had  63 semester programme participants and 267 in short courses, with these numbers likely to increase. While still slightly down on 2019 numbers Prince says “after COVID, this is a really good result and in-country Indonesia study is back”.

unlocking potential

Michael Fay, from advisors ASEAN Focus Group, and chair of the Australia Indonesia Business Council’s Education and Skills Training Industry Group says “Australia has the benefit of geographic proximity with ASEAN’s largest member, where we share the world’s longest maritime boundary.”

“The challenge between now and 2030 will be for Australia to develop stronger ASEAN relationships with key education stakeholders in individual ASEAN member nations (including Indonesia) and with the peak body education architecture driving ASEAN regional connectivity,” he says.

But that will take improved  access. Mr Fay cites aviation links with Indonesia as one key area holding back Australian–Indonesian engagement. While flights to Jakarta and Denpasar are relatively frequent, to unlock the potential of populous tier-two cities in Indonesia flights into and out of these cities are required, potentially even connecting via Darwin.

Makassar makes the case. It is a city with a population of 1.5 million, only  two hour’s flight time from Darwin and with many onward flights to eastern Indonesia and Java. According to Mr Fay , there has been an Australian consulate there since 2016 and Monash University has partnered there with the local Hasanuddin University to establish the strategically positioned Australia Indonesia Centre (AIC).

“This further enhances the city as a future hub with the potential of deeper bi-lateral links in education, vocational training, health services, infrastructure, maritime and tourism, and arts and cultural connectivity.”

Which makes sense.

Dirk Mulder advises education and business clients on trends in international education. He writes regularly for CMM