Oz edu sector working to increase enrolment from India

“We look forward to more Indian students coming in the future. We know that it will take time for people to feel confident again… but that will happen because we had had a long history of engagement together,” said Ganley,who was here to participate in a conference at National Academy of Construction.

“We are positively looking forward (on increasing enrolment) in 2011 and 2012 and beyond,” she said,adding Australian government and regulators had done a lot of work to attract people who want to pursue higher education there.

“We are all working together to make sure that we have the right reasons for engaging. We have overcome a lot of them (problems) because of the measures that have been taken,” she asserted.

Ganley said the situation after last year’s attacks on Indian students was improving now,though,admissions (of Indian students) to all educational institutions both state-run as well as private was affected.

“Yes,it (enrolments) has come down. There’s been an impact on the whole education industry. Figures vary from Universities and Colleges in different states. But it (decline) has been across the whole country… We are already disappointed,because it’s not the way we feel and think about India,” she said.

A report of ABC earlier said there had been a drop of between 40 and 50 per cent in applications from South Asian countries,particularly India,due to incidents of attacks on Indian students besides other reasons.

According to Australian reports,education sector is Australia’s fourth-largest export earner,contributing over USD 17 billion last year.

Ganley said the situation after last year’s attacks on Indian students was improving now,though,admissions (of Indian students) to all educational institutions including the state-run as well as private institutions was affected.

“Yes,it (enrolments) has come down. There’s been an impact on the whole education industry. Figures vary from Universities and Colleges in different states. But it (decline) has been across the whole country,” she said.

“It (attacks) has had an impact and we are all suffering in Australia because of that as well. We really want to move forward in good spirit now and overcome the difficulties that we had in the past,” she said adding,“We are already disappointed,because it’s not the way we feel and think about India.” Ganley expressed hope that the history of cooperation and engagement particularly in education and training with India,would help in improving the situation.

“We have a good relationship with India for long time and that’s what we want for the future. We are positively looking forward (on increasing enrolment) in 2011 and 2012 and beyond,” she said.

A report of ABC earlier said there had been a drop of between 40 and 50 per cent in applications from South Asian countries,particularly India,due to incidents of attacks on Indian students besides other reasons.

According to Australian reports,education sector is Australia’s fourth-largest export earner,contributing over USD 17 billion last year.