Australia’s plan for short courses in international education gets a boost

Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s visit has bolstered Australia’s plan for short courses in international education.

Indian Education Minister Darmendra Pradhan. Source: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

The strategy to build six-month short courses, or microcredentials, into a new arm of Australia’s international education sector has received a boost from this week’s visit by Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Mr Pradhan, who has held talks with the federal government and exchanged views widely across the education sector, is understood to be positive towards Australia’s initiative to offer microcredentials to students in overseas markets.

Last November Morrison government education minister Alan Tudge announced $8m in funding for industry bodies to develop microcredential courses to offer to international students in their home countries.

The Albanese government is going ahead with the plan and is expected to announce the first round of grants soon.

India is expected to be a strong market for the new microcredentials, which will be focused on skills in demand from employers.

The six-month qualifications will give international students skills they can immediately use, and also could be a pathway to entering a diploma or degree course in Australia.

They will be offered by Australian education providers – including universities, TAFEs and independent providers – in partnership with an industry body. They must have recognition or accreditation from industry, and can be offered face-to-face or online.

Because they are short courses and can be studied in a student’s home country, they will be cheaper than studying overseas and potentially open up a major new market for Australian education from families who can’t afford to send a child to another country.

“With industry endorsement, it is anticipated that many of these microcredentials will provide pathways into meaningful jobs,” International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said.

He said that, as the world came out of the pandemic, it was crucial for Australian international education to “recover its reputation through all possible means”.

“The provision of a comprehensive suite of microcredentials we anticipate will meet demand from many students who want to try before they buy – using it as a pathway to a more substantive course,” he said.

“Alternatively, for countries such as India, with a strong push to upskill a large number of potential students, these Australian microcredentials will provide clear job outcomes.”

On Wednesday Mr Pradhan will join the Group of Eight universities for a roundtable on research collaboration between Australia and India. Go8 chief executive Vicki Thomson said university engagement with India went “beyond student recruitment, as important as that is”.

She said there was an opportunity to deepen collaborative research undertaken between Australian and Indian universities. Go8 universities see the opportunity for collaboration in areas including clinical medicine, physics, chemistry, engineering, materials science and space science.

Ms Thomson called for the inclusion of an “innovation chapter” in the Australia-India Economic Co-operation and Trade Agreement, which was signed by the two countries on an interim basis in April.

“The Go8 recommends that the role of innovation and commercialisation, which will underpin the productivity gains and economic prosperity of both nations, be acknowledged in the AI-ECTA,” Ms Thomson said.