Australia forecasts plunge in Indian students

AFP 
30 December 2009
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp

SYDNEY — The number of Indian students in Australia is set to plunge by a fifth in 2010 after a spate of violent attacks and visa scams, an official report said Wednesday.
 
Australia's Tourism Forecasting Committee (TFC) said that judging from visa applications there would be 4,000 fewer Indian arrivals next year, a drop of 21 percent.
 
"The resultant loss in economic value to Australia could be as high as 78 million dollars in 2010 if these enrolments are not filled by other international students," the TFC warned in its half-year forecast.
 
TFC chairman Bernard Salt said it was the first assessment of the impact of negative publicity over alleged racial violence and exploitation of Indian students this year.
 
"What we're saying is that based on consideration of visa applications there's a 20 percent hit," Salt told state radio, adding that it was hard to say whether the drop was a "knee-jerk, one-year reaction".
 
Gautam Gupta, president of the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, said the predicted slump was not as severe as forecast immediately after street protests in June against the violence in Sydney and Melbourne.
 
"We were predicting a drop of about 50 percent," Gupta told state radio. "If the drop is about 20 percent, that's significantly lower than what was the prediction about three months back."
 
Australia's higher education industry has grown in value to 17.2 billion dollars (15.4 billion US) a year and is officially listed as the country's third largest export earner, as it targets India's growing middle class.
 
Students from the subcontinent account for 19 percent of total international enrolments. They filled 117,000 places in the 12 months to October 2009, according to government statistics.
 
An interim report on Australia's international education sector released this month found its global reputation and brand had been damaged by violent attacks and migration scams, "particularly in India".
 
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd together with his education and foreign ministers visited India this year to deliver assurances that Indian students were safe.
 

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