Adelaide University to grow international student numbers by more than 10,000 in 2019

One of the state’s big three unis is planning to boost its foreign student intake as earnings for the sector are tipped to go sky high. The news comes as 15,000 university offers are made for SA students - SEE THE OFFER LIST INSIDE

• Premier: SA should have 10 per cent of all foreign students

Foreign student numbers at one of SA’s big three unis will boom more than 25 per cent this year, while the value of international education has tipped over $1.6 billion.

Under vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen, Adelaide University says it is aggressively targeting growth, mainly to be a more “global” institution.

But it makes no secret of the fact foreign student revenue is also important to financial viability, saying it helps cover for Australia’s “uniquely bad” research funding system.

Adelaide projects its on-campus foreign student contingent to rise from 7877 last year to more than 10,000. Applications grew 28 per cent to 7702 and it has made 6352 offers, up 18 per cent.

Deputy vice-chancellor Pascale Quester said developing “intercultural competence” in all students was vital.

Professor Pascale Quester

“I cannot conceive of a global university that doesn’t have a global fabric. It is what our domestic students need us to do – connect them with people from elsewhere.”

Prof Quester said more than a quarter of domestic students did part of their degrees overseas while half of academic staff were born overseas or dual citizens.

She said foreign students helped with unis’ “sustainability predicament” because “both sides of politics seem to think investment in human capital is less important than infrastructure or mining.”

The Chinese proportion of Adelaide’s undergrads will fall this year as Indian and Indonesian numbers boom.

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Torrens University is forecasting an even larger rise of more than 50 per cent this year, from 892 to 1372 students.

UniSA’s foreign contingent will rise from 5700 to about 6000, though it stressed those figures were for full degree students only, not short courses.

It expects commencing numbers to be 2600, up 10 per cent, while applications were up 27 per cent.

Flinders University, which had 5400 foreign students last year, had a 15 per cent rise in applications for 2019 and has made 19 per cent more offers.

Study Adelaide said ABS figures showed international education was worth $1.62 billion in 2017/18, up 10.6 per cent, making it second only to wine in export value. Trade Minister David Ridgway said a job was created for every four international students.