Australia: student attacks threaten market

Australia has a very big problem on its hands.

The international education market is Australia's third biggest industry behind iron ore and coal, worth in excess of A$15 billion each year. The market may be at risk due to what seems to be a worsening pattern of violent attacks against international students, particularly in Melbourne.

For the past several weeks Australian media has been reporting on attacks against Indian students. The story has been picked up by media across the world, including in India, China and Indonesia where concern seems to be rising about the safety of the young people that travel from those countries to study in Australia.

Anger is rising in the ranks of international students in Australia who feel that governments at the State and Federal level are not doing enough to address the problem. There have been several large public protests by international students in both Melbourne and Sydney. (see video)

It seems that Australian governments are now starting to react with various taskforces aimed at addressing the problem. Whatever they plan to do they better do it quickly or risk watching a large chunk of Australia's international education market share get snaffled by competitors like the US, UK and Canada who do not currently have the same issues (or at least not that we have know of). There are signs that the recent trouble has already had an impact on future enrolments in Australia

Those who would like to know more about this issue might be interested in this opinion piece which takes a step back from the current instances of violence against international students in Australia and views the problem in the context of a broader systemic failure.