Value of education falls again

AUSTRALIA'S fourth-largest export industry, international education, has fallen in value for the fourth consecutive year.

AUSTRALIA'S fourth-largest export industry, international education, has fallen in value for the fourth consecutive year after being hit by a 7 per cent decline in enrolments last year.

Government data shows that 516,000 full-fee-paying students came to Australia last year, 6.9 per cent fewer than in 2011.

University enrolments declined by 4.3 per cent while vocational education plummeted by 14.2 per cent.

"This is the low point and we hope it has now bottomed out," said Phil Honeywood, executive director of the International Education Association of Australia.

Falling enrolments have seen the value of the sector to the economy slump to $14.6 billion, from a high of $17bn in 2009.

Demand from overseas students began falling in 2008 after a chain of events including the high dollar; bashings of Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney; changes to the visa regime, which cut automatic permanent residency for graduates; and the collapse of several colleges.

Since then, former Olympics minister Michael Knight has written a report on ways to fix visa issues. Businessman Michael Chaney is also expected to hand his report on how to fix the sector to new Tertiary Education Minister Chris Bowen in the coming weeks.

But there is a small ray of hope. Visas for study at university were up 26 per cent in the December quarter, while overall student visas increased by 8 per cent from September.

Applications to study at English-language colleges, which act as feeders into colleges and universities, also moved into positive territory -- reaching, 95,224, just 219 more than in 2011.

All of the top six markets were in the negative last year, but three showed double-digit growth: Pakistan (18 per cent); Colombia (14 per cent) and The Philippines (21 per cent). China is the largest source country, representing 30 per cent of students.