Over 50,000 Indian students enrol in Australian universities in 2014

New Delhi: Australia seems to be back in the reckoning for Indian students pursuing higher education, with the state of Victoria alone registering a 20 per cent increase in student enrolment in 2014 compared to the previous year.

The outbound student traffic to Australia which dipped in 2009 after the closure of bogus colleges and racial attacks, has seen a steady increase since then with the enrolment touching over 50,000 in September 2014.

"In September, 2014 over 50,000 Indian students enrolled across Australia, out of which half of them (25,000) are enrolled in Victoria," said Director of the Victorian Government Business Office in Bangalore Annie Santhana.

Referring to forecasts conducted by international agencies looking at global student mobility, she said the number of students from India to Australia is projected to increase considerably every year, with some of them predicting 25-30 per cent year-on-year growth.

"Currently the maximum number of students from India have been mainly from metros.

"However, we are seeing a change in that trend with students from tier 2 and tier 3 cities such as Chandigarh, Rajkot, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Madurai, and Trichy etc are applying for higher education courses in Australia," she said.

Mainstream courses such as business, engineering and IT as well as the sciences remain the sought after programmes but there has been a significant rise in several emerging vocational study courses too.

"A lot of students are coming for hairdressing courses, hospitality and commercial cookery courses. Vocational training courses have become extremely popular. Considering what India is trying to do now, it is extremely encouraging," she told PTI.