Outcomes from AIE2025 Consultation Workshops

Australian International Education 2025 | Outcomes from AIE2025 Consultation Workshops April 2015 i

Executive summary

Outcomes from AIE2025 Consultation WorkshopsApril 2015

Australian International Education 2025 | Outcomes from AIE2025 Consultation Workshops April 2015 1

ContentsExecutive SummaryAspirational visions 2

Strategic priorities 3

Mindset change 3

Next steps 3

AIE2025 in context Why AIE2025? 4

Overview of the AIE2025 consultation workshopsConsultation timetable and participation 5

What emerged?Emerging aspirational visions 7

Emerging strategic themes 8

Delivering systemic change 10

Working togetherEngagement 11

Attachment AFormidable challenges as we work to accommodate Asia’s growth 12

Attachment BApproach to the AIE2025 consultation workshops 14

Attachment CQuotes from speakers on the AIE2025 Roadshow 18

Attachment DOrganisational profiles 21

Attachment EApproach to the categorisation of aspirational visions 28

Attachment FApproach to the categorisation of strategic priorities 28

AcknowledgementsAustrade would first like to acknowledge and thank the more than 800 participants who invested a large amount of their own time in April 2015 to attend the face-to-face and virtual events. In each location there was a positive and collaborative spirit and input that was generated was first-class.

These consultations, and the AIE2025 project more generally, were further enhanced by the advice and input of key members of the international education sector who have acted as sounding boards and provided input at key points, as well as contributing directly to the consultation agenda. Austrade extends its appreciation and thanks to them.

Austrade also wishes to acknowledge the generosity of Ashurst Sydney in providing the use of its conference facilities for two days in Sydney.

Finally, Austrade would like to acknowledge and thank Stephen Connelly, Director GlobalEd Services, who facilitated the consultations in the major centres, as well as the webinar. The workshop consultations also benefited from the guidance and input of David Pointon and Mark Spain who assisted in the design of the program. David and Mark will continue to advise the Austrade leadership team in the coming months as we progress the development of AIE2025.


Executive summary

Executive SummaryAustralian International Education 2025 (AIE2025) is a market development plan for Australian international education for the next decade.

This undertaking was initiated by the Trade and Investment Minister, the Hon Andrew Robb AO MP when he set down two challenges to the sector in March 2015. He asked could Australia:

› Double the number of students and study visitors onshore

› Reach up to 10 million people offshore

AIE2025 aims to drive a paradigm shift in Australia’s international education, training and skills sector to enable long-term sustainable growth in an intensely competitive global market. This requires an expanded definition of what constitutes Australian international education and a focus on the changes needed across the sector, including a ‘mindset change’ to ensure that it realises its potential to be a key contributor to the future prosperity of both Australia and our international partners.

A key stage in the formation of the AIE2025 has been the consultation workshops held in all Australian capital cities, and Townsville, during April 2015. Over 800 people representing diverse perspectives from within and outside the sector attended these ‘town hall’ style meetings. The topics covered during the workshops included:

› What could be the vision for this long-term market development plan

› What are the strategic priorities that would contribute to achieving the overarching vision

› What mindset changes would be required to drive sustainable growth onshore and offshore

Aspirational visionsA clear, compelling vision is an important element of a long term market development plan, as it can become a catalyst to change the narrative and a focus of collective action across the industry. During the workshops participants were asked to consider an aspirational vision for the sector. Analysis of the individual aspirational visions provided by participants identified that they fell broadly into six key categories.

The range of aspirational visions can be viewed in terms of occupying different points along a continuum – with ‘global benefit’ at one end and ‘numbers / export value’ at the other. The six categories, including their relative weighting, are shown below.

Global Benefit 13%

Quality 17%

Provider of Choice

17%

Onshore and Offshore

4%

Employee / Outcomes

7%

Numbers / Export Value

16%

The following statements are direct transcriptions of individual aspirational visions and are a sample of the kinds of visions under each of the headings:

› Global Benefit – Australia is a world-leading education provider that facilitates international exchange, engagement, capacity-building and global cooperation

› Quality – Australia educating the world – market leader for global quality education

› Provider of Choice – Australian education is the #1 choice globally in key strength areas

› Onshore and Offshore – A sustainable, growing sector involving onshore and offshore and all sectors and new and established providers

› Employability / Outcomes – Australian education and training as a foundation for success anywhere in the 21st century

› Numbers / Export Driven – Australia’s #1 export (onshore and offshore activity)

Ultimately the strategy will need to be guided by one overarching vision. The ultimate articulation of the overarching vision will be further tested in the second half of 2015 to ensure that it has the greatest meaning for the broadest number of stakeholders.


Executive summary

Strategic prioritiesParticipants identified a wide range of strategic priorities needed to achieve long-term sustainable growth in the sector. Analysis of the strategic priorities – or enablers that help us reach our overarching aspiration – identified a list of 22 different categories. The top eight in that list are outlined below, including their relative recurrence and an indicative example:

› Student Experience 12% – Invest and collaborate to improve the international students experience (accommodation, transport and community integration)

› Collaboration 12% – the entire education sector on board and working collaboratively to achieve 2025 goals

› Reputation and Branding 10% – Our value proposition – why Australia?

› Innovation 10% – Focus on innovation and technology to reach maximum potential students

› Quality 7% – Realistic expectations, responsive to trends, get as much education as we can at price point

› Employability 7% – Prepare students to be job ready in Australia and the world

› Government Coordination 7% – Consistent, national / state / local support – all levels of government united in agreement, mutually supportive

› Diversification 6% – Diversify existing markets and develop new ones, think beyond higher education

Experts have identified that plans with fewer strategic priorities are the more likely to be implemented, as they provide sharper focus on fewer areas of high importance. Thus, a long term market development plan will ideally have just three or four key priorities. Further work will be needed to synthesise and interpret the priorities gathered to date.

Mindset changeSystemic level change experts, such as Donella Meadows (‘Places to intervene in a system’) say that to achieve fundamental systemic change we must work at the level of paradigm or mindset change. While the aspirational vision and strategic priorities provide the ‘why’ and ‘what’ for the market development plan, the mindset change discussion revealed opportunities as to ‘how’ the industry may transform itself in order to achieve its bold aspiration. Participants identified opportunities to effect paradigm change:

› Onshore – Need to influence and change community, employer and political leaders mindsets – show the benefits and value of international students; address infrastructure constraints; and strengthen ‘brand Australia’ by working as collaborators, not competitors

› Offshore – re-define ‘student’ for offshore context, e.g. customer, client, student; leverage areas of Australian expertise, e.g. agribusiness for education, training and skills offshore; move beyond only accredited education and training, e.g. huge opportunities for ‘corporate training’; and leverage technology and digital platforms

Next stepsThe insights gained through the consultation workshops will be considered further through subsequent stages of the creation of the market development plan. These stages will include:

› Round tables with industry leaders and Minister the Hon Andrew Robb AO MP during August and September 2015

› Research by Deloitte Access Economics, partnered with EduWorld, to be delivered in September 2015

› workshops with an industry advisory group and sector peak bodies during September 2015


AIE2025 in context

AIE2025 in context Why AIE2025?Over the last 30 years, the provision of education and training services has become one of Australia’s major exports, benefiting not only education providers but also communities across the country, and creating a significant cohort of influential international alumni, particularly in Asia. Export education generated $17.6b in export revenue in 2014. Demand for education and training globally is expected to increase over the next 10 years. Taking advantage of the opportunities for Australia requires fresh thinking about international education onshore and offshore in order to leverage Australia’s strengths and strategic advantages to meet global demand.

Two reports in 2014 identified the international education sector as having high potential to drive Australia’s future prosperity and international engagement. McKinsey Australia’s Compete to Prosper: Improving Australia’s global competitiveness1 categorises international education as an ‘advantaged performer’.

Australia’s competitiveness segments

AdvantagedPerformers

Agriculture Mining andextraction

Food andbeverage

manufacturing

Basicmanufacturing

Construction Utilities Logistics Finance

Communications Wholesale andretail trade Domestic services Public services

Real estateservices

Professionalservices

Advancedmanufacturing

Tourism Internationaleducation

LatentPotentials

Transitionals

EnablingIndustries

DomesticCore and

Public

Commoditiesprocessing

SEGMENT SECTOR

Education, mining and extraction, agriculture and tourism are categorised as having ‘intrinsic advantages and [with] ongoing global demand, they [will] continue to be critical to Australia’s broader success’.

Positioning for Prosperity? Catching the next wave2 from Deloitte highlights international education as one of the ‘Fantastic Five’ sectors that will drive the next wave of economic growth in Australia post the mining investment boom.

Australia’s current, next and future waves of growth, 2013–33

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Future wavesNext waves

Tourism

Current wave

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Australian advantage (right is stronger)

Gas

International education

Agribusiness

Wealth management

Health

Water and waste services

Retail and wholesaleOther education and training

Public administrationTransport and logistics

Telecommunications

Construction

OilMiningBanking

Business andpropertyservices

ICT

ManufacturingMedia

These reports – and others like them – have received a great deal of attention from political and business leaders. Trade and Investment, Minister the Hon Andrew Robb AO MP, wrote an opinion piece in The Australian on 25 March 2015 (see Attachment A) that highlighted this opportunity and set out the following two key challenges for Australia’s international education sector. Over the next decade can Australia:

› Double the number of international students and visitors learning and training in Australia in a sustainable manner?; and

› Substantially increase (as measured in the millions) the number of people overseas learning and training via Australian-developed courses or content (face-to-face, blended learning or through digital platforms)?

1 http://www.mckinsey.com/global_locations/pacific/australia/en/latest_thinking/compete_to_prosper

2 http://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/building-lucky-country/articles/positioning-for-prosperity.html


Overview of the AIE2025 consultation workshops

The Minister asked Austrade ‘to work with the international education sector this year, including with non-traditional players, to develop a long-term market development strategy out to 2025’. In asking Austrade to steward the co-creation of a bold new 10-year vision for Australian international education, Minister Robb said that it needs to:

› start by changing mindsets, within the sector and beyond

› have a strong and engaging narrative about the future of the sector

› build on our strengths as well as consider new opportunities for the sector

› be long term and shared across the sector, emulating Tourism 2020 and the tourism industry.

‘A spectacular opportunity lies before us … the real test is working out ways to make the most of it’. – andrew robb

AIE2025 is a market development plan for Australian international education for the next decade. This initiative aims to drive a paradigm shift in Australia’s international education sector. The long term nature of the plan requires not only an expanded definition of what constitutes the sector but also mindset changes to ensure that it realises its potential to be a key contributor to the future prosperity of both Australia and our international partners.

The development of a long-term market development plan for the international education industry contributes to the work being progressed by the Minister for Education and Training, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, in developing a National Strategy for International Education. His overarching strategy will support a modern, competitive and sustainable Australian international education sector. Participants at the AIE2025 consultations were encouraged to provide submissions on the draft strategy which closed on 29 May 2015.

Overview of the AIE2025 consultation workshopsMinister Robb tasked Austrade and the sector to develop AIE2025. The initial mechanism for consultation was a series of ‘town hall’ workshops conducted around Australia, in all capital cities plus Townsville, commencing on 2 April in Townsville and concluding in Hobart on 24 April 2015. The format and approach taken in the workshops is outlined in Attachment A of this report. A webinar was also conducted on 28 April and provided an overview of preliminary consultation outcomes.

Consultation timetable and participationThe workshop timetable and registrant numbers in each location was as follows:

Date Location # Registrants

April 2 Townsville 15

April 9 Darwin 30

April 13 Sydney 1 100

April 14 Sydney 2 80

April 15 Brisbane 105

April 17 Canberra 45

April 20 Perth 65

April 21 Adelaide 75

April 22 Melbourne 1 95

April 23 Melbourne 2 80

April 24 Hobart 30

April 28 Webinar 85

Total registrants 805

In each major centre, a representative from the sector challenged the group to think boldly and creatively during the workshop and also shared what excited them about AIE2025. Extracts from several of these remarks are available at Attachment B.


Overview of the AIE2025 consultation workshops

One of the key outcomes of the workshops was the recognition of the change that is already occurring in the Australian international education sector. The diversity of participants and the range of innovative projects, initiatives and business models across all the locations is evidence of this shift. Some participants were generous enough to provide a brief overview of their organisation or a particularly different project, a full set of these is available at Attachment D. Following are some extracts from those contributions:

› ‘Circulus Education feels that Australia is well positioned to create high volume, long term sustainable education and employment pathways through partnering with international governments and corporations’. – Circulus Education

› ‘EduBytes aim is to help Australian educational institutions use cutting edge e-learning and software to reach new markets, through the power of digital technology, and the latest innovations in administration management’. – EduBytes International

› ‘We’ve combined the latest thinking coming out of deep research in neuroscience and behavioural science with world leading game designers and educators to create King’s School, an engaging virtual language learning world on mobile devices. At King’s School they learn English, build resilience, creativity and independent thinking’. – Global English

› ‘At Google, we believe that Australian education can help solve access and equity issues around the globe. There is no doubt that an in-country experience will always remain as an integral part of the suite of international education modalities. However, this should not diminish or be to the exclusion of the idea of Australian online content, provided by an Australian institution, with an Australian qualification, in an overseas environment’. – Google

› ‘AIBTM currently has a similar collaboration from AIB International, Kansas (USA) and Hyejeon College, South Korea to train 10,000 bakery students over 10 years’. – Hunter TAFE

› ‘An EduTourism consortium has been created made up of world class research institutions (James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science), natural resource management agencies (the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority) and high standard, nature based, experiential learning facilitators’. – Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

› ‘Working with global companies in this growth industry our research has identified a need for our specialist training internationally with My Freight Career now looking at taking our unique business model and quality industry training to rest of the world.’ – My Freight Career

› ‘Students may spend 10 to 20 hours per week in class and some more time on campus, but as far as the accommodation provider goes, students will often spend 100 contact hours with them per week. Student Rooms is uniquely placed to significantly contribute to their overall experience and help Australia build its reputation as a world-class international study destination’. – Student Rooms

› ‘As all international students entering Australia are required to bring a certain amount of money with them, traditional financial institutions fees and rates can really impact on students financially. Our platform will allow the students to perform foreign exchange at the more favourable rate of 0.5 per cent, a fraction the current charge of up to five per cent. – Unitransact and GoP2P

› ‘In Shenzhen the University is involved in the training of primary health care leaders to steward the development of the primary health care system. Over 500 leaders have been trained in this program and they have made a major contribution to leading the implementation of the Chinese government’s health care reforms.’ – The University of Adelaide

› ‘We believe there is an opportunity to join our current businesses with the burgeoning international education sector and provide training in agriculture for such students’. – Virginia Park Station

› ‘We are excited about the future of Australian international education as the goals for the sector are ambitious, but achievable, and the opportunities are boundless. We believe that our technologies and capabilities can play a key role in both onshore and offshore environments’. – White Cloud Global

› ‘Tourism 2020 has been a good motivator for our organisation and provides a platform to link to all sectors of the tourism industry and provide an opportunity to have a voice with government in terms of policy’. – YHA


What emerged?

What emerged?Emerging aspirational visionsA clear, compelling vision is a critical element of a long term market development plan, as it can become a catalyst to change the narrative, and a focus of collective action across the industry. Austrade’s analysis of some 570 individual aspirational visions for a long term market development plan has identified six key categories of aspirations (a fuller explanation of the approach taken to arrive at these six headers is at Attachment D). The category headings and their relative weighting are provided below:

› Provider of choice 17%

› Quality 17%

› Numbers / Export Value 16%

› Global benefit 13%

› Employability / Outcomes 7%

› Offshore and Onshore 4%

The range of aspirations can be viewed in terms of occupying different points of a continuum – with ‘global benefit’ at one end and ‘numbers / export value’ at the other.

Global Benefit 13%

Quality 17%

Provider of Choice

17%


4%

Employee / Outcomes

7%


16%

The following statements are direct transcriptions of individual aspirational visions and are a sample of the range of visions under each of the headings.

Global Benefit

› Australian international education to be a global leader in developing minds

› Australia is a world-leading education provider that facilitates international exchange, engagement, capacity-building and global cooperation

› Your first step toward becoming a global citizen starts from Australia

› Inspire, learn and grow

› Learning opportunities for all

Quality

› A globally renowned provider of quality education

› Australia as the world-renowned destination and source of high quality education across all sectors

› Highest quality, flexible delivery of education enabled through multimodal channels

› Australia educating the world – market leader for global quality education

› Australian international education becomes #1 in the world in next ten years – quality is the key

Provider of Choice

› Australia to be first choice in global education and training

› Australia – international partner of choice for education services in Asia and the Indo-Pacific

› Australia is the lead global provider of international education

› Australian education is the #1 choice globally in key strength areas

› For Australia to be the student destination of choice for quality, experience and outcomes


› To provide world-class distance, offshore and onshore education to international students

› Create, foster and implement opportunities for international student growth onshore and offshore

› Sustainable, flexible, meeting student needs onshore and offshore

› An international education sector that matches student needs (onshore and offshore) with Australia’s strengths

› A sustainable, growing sector involving onshore and offshore and all sectors and new and established providers


What emerged?

Employability / Outcomes

› Study in Australia as a foundation for success anywhere in the 21st century

› Australian graduates will contribute to a globally mobile workforce

› To offer indisputably the best student experience in the world, delivering the needs of employers, communities, society through innovation and value

› To build a high quality education framework in order to be world leaders in providing education with focus on employability

› To create an international education system which delivers outcomes that satisfy the demand for global skills standards and the needs of its students


› Australia’s #1 export (onshore and offshore activity)

› $30 billion industry through new modes of delivery and business models

› Double size of international education onshore and offshore (annotation ‘yes, but not bold enough’)

› To unlock the potential of Australia’s quality education systems and providers to develop its global connectivity to contribute to Australia’s future prosperity

› International education is a significant contributor to the sustained growth and prosperity of Australia

One of the underlying issues to surface during the workshops in identifying an overarching aspiration for AIE2025 was a perceived tension between the broader benefits of international education and considerations of quality on the one hand and more commercial measures such as export earnings or the position of international education among Australia’s top exports on the other. Many participants shared their differing views on this question, either in table discussions or with the broader group. The closest any group came to addressing this creative tension in a way that was broadly endorsed was a statement on the second session in Melbourne that these two aspects are not mutually exclusive – ‘you need a high quality offering to be commercially successful’. While this issue was not resolved, it was called out as something that needs to be dealt with for AIE2025 to be successful and gain widespread buy-in, both from within and without the sector.

The ultimate articulation of the overarching vision will be further tested in the second half of 2015 to ensure that the AIE2025 vision has the greatest meaning for the broadest number of stakeholders.

Emerging strategic themesAustrade’s analysis of the close to 2,000 strategic priorities for a long term market development plan identified a list of 22 categories. The following is a list of the category headings and their relative weighting (only those priorities with a weighting >1% are included here, for a full list see Attachment E):

12%

2%

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

7%

7%

10%

10%

12%

Student experience

Collaboration

Reputationand branding

Innovation

Quality

Employability

Governmentcoordination

Diversification

Student /client centric

Growth

Sector specific

Industry and communityengagement

Sector engagementand cooperation

TNE

Global relevance

Technology

The following statements are direct transcriptions of individual strategic priorities and are a sample the kinds of priorities under each of the headings.

Student Experience

› International students seamlessly integrated into Australian society as part of their onshore study experience

› Invest and collaborate to improve the international student experience (accommodation, transport, community integration)

› Student experience is given equal support as marketing and recruitment


What emerged?

Collaboration

› To create a national collaborative approach to overcome ups and downs in the international education sector

› To have the entire education sector on board and working collaboratively to 2025 goals

› Greater coordination and flexibility facilitated across education sectors to support the development of the education export area for Australia

› Partnerships within and without the sector, and with international partners

Reputation and Branding

› To increase Australia’s profile in the global market

› Our value proposition – why Australia?

› Unified message through brand, commitment and consistency

› Cooperative partnering and marketing

› What is Australia’s competitive advantage, unique offer, compared with competitors

Innovation

› Innovation – new programs – student outcome-focused job-oriented, student experience

› Leader in innovative partnerships, public / private, technology industry etc

› Work in new ways with new partners

› Focus on innovation and technology to reach maximum potential students

Quality

› Develop quality teacher training, subject knowledge, teaching techniques, resources, cultural sensitivity, relevant content

› Focus on quality assurance, industry rankings and student outcomes to ensure attention on sector quality

› Attract quality international students who receive a first class education in Australia

› Quality – realistic expectations, responsive to trends, get as much as education as we can at price point

Employability

› Linking students with prospective employers globally

› Employability outcomes and global citizen/recognition

› Identify opportunities for international students to participate in work experience and volunteer activity

› Prepare students to be job ready in Australia and the world

Government Coordination

› Allow visa application process to be more competitive than key competitors

› AIE to counsel fed government on need for competitive policies to succeed globally

› Emphasis on government-to-government relationships support the industry through diplomacy and trade agreements

› High level representation ministerial level

› Consistent, national/state/local support – all levels of government united in agreement mutually supportive

Diversification

› Expand education to emerging and non-traditional markets

› Diversify existing markets and develop new ones, think beyond higher education

› Offshore market development – new markets, TNE

› Diversify countries of recruitment and product mix and teaching methods

› Diversify – onshore attracting students to new programs and new countries, offshore deliver programs in more countries

Student/Client Centric

› Offer courses that students need/want

› Client-focused, student, commercial market

› Customer focus, industry experience, flexible learning

› Customer focused needs and wants, quality, education outcomes

› Understand and interpret client needs – design and deliver appropriate programs

Growth

› Grow international education market without compromising education quality

› Australian educators find the right balance between growth and maintaining quality

› Ensure growth is sustainable, profitable and investment is made

› Increase % of international students studying at Australian institutions across all sectors


What emerged?

Sector Specific

› A vast increase in the number of VET and skills providers serving international markets

› Schools sector will be positioned to increase international student numbers onshore and to scaffold international student pathways to VET and higher education

› To develop Australia as the ‘English language Mecca’ for the world – the place to come to study English as a first step to other courses and tourism

Industry and Community Engagement

› Winning over the Australian public, including outbound mobility

› Australian community see the importance of international education and makes all students welcome

› Real (tangible) business buy-in, support for work-integrated learning related activity

› Work-integrated learning – make Australia businesses aware of international students

› All international students sustain bonds and connections with Australia

Sector Engagement and Cooperation

› Collaboration across sectors, government, private and public

› Increase overseas partnerships on various levels by listening to overseas institution

TNE

› Virtual classrooms, online courses and offshore exams

› Australian international education will become a preferred partner for TNE

› TNE 2.0 development of highly flexible, skills based, niche learning packages

› Leader in TNE by delivering Australian education content to 10 million people overseas through online and TNE (all forms)

Global Relevance

› Global skills – provide relevant education, training and skills to all here in Australia and overseas

› Australia leads the world in development of global skills training standards to assist in the mobility of Australian industry and global skilled labour

› Consider overcoming barriers to deliver education and qualifications in overseas markets by delivering courses in the country’s native language (most institutions deliver courses in non-native language)

Technology

› Set up Australian international education incubator/innovator hubs

› Create innovation hubs in every city that bring industry, education, private equity and government together

› Leading in digital engagement – delivery and social, industry and employment

› More investment in eLearning and research with other sector partners

All these strategic priorities represent excellent ‘enablers’ that if the Australian international education sector could put into action even a portion of these ideas over the next 10 years our aspirational vision would be achieved. However, plans that have fewer strategic priorities are more likely to be implemented, as they provide sharper focus on fewer areas of high importance. Thus, a long term market development plan will ideally have just three or four key priorities. Further work will be needed to synthesise and interpret the priorities gathered to date.

Delivering systemic changeWorkshop participants were challenged to think outside their own part of the ‘system’ (i.e. their own organisation) in order to bring about or envisage ‘systemic change’ (i.e. whole of industry change). Systematic change experts, such as Donella Meadows (‘Places to intervene in the system’), say that to achieve fundamental systemic change we must work at the level of paradigm or mindset change. Participants were asked to consider ‘leverage points’ in the system, either elements that work well and that we should do more of or amplify, or elements that hold the current system back and which we should seek to do less of, or which need mitigation. The following are samples of the kinds of mindset changes or innovations identified by participants in relation to onshore and offshore activity, and for possible inclusion as components of AIE2025.


Working together

New paradigm – onshore

› Need to influence / change community, employer and political leaders mindsets – show the benefits/value of international students

› Re-define international education to its broadest conception

› Address infrastructure constraints

› Push for regional centres and diversification of sources and fields

› Flexible pathways

› Strengthen ‘Brand Australia’

› Opportunities to collaborate with the tourism sector

› Must have a ‘customer-oriented’ mindset

› No longer see others in the sector as competitors > mindset of working together

New paradigm – offshore

› Re-define ‘student’ > offshore customer/client/student

› Fusion of courses/content > best of ours and theirs

› Local language delivery and content that suits local needs

› Partner international education with other areas of Australian expertise, e.g. agribusiness

› Shift our thinking as providers from seeing these opportunities as ‘scarce’ to ‘abundant’ > changes our mindset from one of competition to collaboration

› Move beyond only accredited education/training > e.g. huge opportunities for ‘corporate training’

› Leverage technology and digital platforms

Elements of the AIE2025 plan

› Articulate a clear vision that is more than just $$ and #s

› Measurable goals

› Current state of sector; long-term opportunity identification; priority setting; and resources

› Australia’s value proposition key strengths

› Competitor analysis

› Market intelligence

› Case studies

› Whole of sector / government (all levels) cooperating to achieve AIE2025

› Educate Australian community

› Identify opportunities for partnership – within sector, and with other sectors and with international partners

Working togetherEngagementIn stewarding the development of AIE2025 Austrade will continue its engagement with the Australian international education sector through various channels:

› LinkedIn group: Australian International Education (AIE) 2025.

› AIE2025 website: www.austrade.gov.au/aie2025 – Austrade will post relevant publicly available information here.

› MIP content: www.austrade.gov.au/Education/Services/Market-Information-Package – Austrade will continue to leverage opportunities on the MIP to further the objectives of AIE2025.

The AIE2025 market development plan will be ready for release during Quarter 1 2016. Austrade plans another similar scale consultation in early 2016 to engage more broadly with the sector on the activation or implementation stage of the plan.


Attachment A

Attachment AFormidable challenges as we work to accommodate Asia’s growthThe Australian, 25 March 2015 by Andrew Robb

The growth in demand for Australia’s world-class educational and vocational training from countries in the Asia-Pacific reflects the – humanitarian miracle unfolding in our region.

With foreign students contributing an unprecedented $16.6 billion last year — our fourth biggest export overall — the prospects for further growth are obvious.

But the challenges are formidable, given competition from our key competitors: the US, Britain, Germany, France and Canada. We have a 6 per cent global share of higher education students and have seen 15 per cent growth during the past year. In the vocational space we have seen 20 per cent growth. The fundamental question is: are we in a position to accommodate continued growth of this scale and at the same time increase global market share?

There is no doubt we have the potential to do it but the need for ongoing innovation in the marketing of our brand and delivery of high-quality content, along with continued investment, are critical.

While China has long been our No 1 market, demand from across the region is quickly – growing, in large part driven by a spectacular expansion its middle class.

The changing face of the market can be seen in figures showing that during the past 12 years India has gone from our ninth biggest market to second, Vietnam from 17th to fourth, The Philippines 38th to 14th and so on.

In terms of student numbers, latest figures show that enrolments from India are up 55 per cent, Taiwan 28 per cent, Vietnam 26 per cent, The Philippines 17 per cent, China 15 per cent and Malaysia 13 per cent.

India is our top VET market, having grown 27 per cent in the past year alone, and the demand across the next decade will be phenomenal. As part of his inspiring economic transformation plan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set his country the task of skilling and training 500 million Indians by 2022.

Early this year, I led a 450-strong business mission to India that included representation from our higher education, training and skills sectors. The determination within India to address its economic development challenges was palpable. India is looking to back its strengths and become the world’s leading centre for low-cost, labour-intensive manufacturing under its ‘‘Make in India’’ campaign. It is looking to create hundreds of millions of jobs and increase productivity, underpinned by investments in innovation and – infrastructure.

In many regards we can expect from India a repeat of what we have seen from China during the past 15 years. The scope for growth in our trading relationship is clear when you consider our two-way trade with India is about $15.5bn, compared with $160bn with China — two countries with one billion-plus populations.

We share much in common with India beyond a love of cricket, including democratic institutions and the English language. India — with as many as 350 million – English-speaking citizens — is challenging the US as the leading English-speaking country.

It explains the logic in us – looking to conclude a bilateral economic trade and investment agreement by the end of this year. Services, including education and training, are a key focus of our negotiations.

The 15 per cent growth in the past year has translated into record commencements of about 100,000. We also are seeing a shift in demand towards masters as opposed to bachelor degrees. This highlights how the market is forever evolving.

Sure, we can look to increase the number of students studying here. Last year we welcomed more than 400,000 from more than 150 markets. But the potential exists to be teaching up to 10 million students within the region within 10 years if we adopt a wide range of different models across higher education, vocational education and training and secondary levels, most requiring some form of presence in the various markets.


Attachment A

Many providers are beginning to expand their physical footprints offshore through the development of campuses and partnerships. In secondary education, for instance, independent Melbourne school Haileybury opened a campus outside Beijing in 2013 to educate Chinese students through to Year 12. This will be a feeder school through to Australian universities.

The model of study in Australia will address only a fraction of the global demand for higher skills. There are many potential students who cannot travel to Australia but still require skills and training.

The challenge is to engage millions of people in their own country through offshore delivery and by harnessing the power of digital technologies. Australia has well-established expertise in distance education, including online, and we can build on that foundation.

We know, for example, that employers and their workers don’t always require a full qualification. Often what they want is a partial qualification or proven skill that may or may not be accredited but that is still delivered with the high quality for which Australian education is renowned.

Massive open online courses demonstrate the power of online technology that can be applied to vocational skills and training for overseas students.

Blended education models will see most of a course delivered in a student’s home country complemented by a flagship course or semester in Australia. In turn, Australian students can do likewise in a partnership educational institute.

We also need to work hard at adapting our vocational skills and training content to international needs and, to their great credit, providers are always trying new ways to deliver their product.

As a government we are innovating, too; testing approaches that may assist the delivery of Australian skills in-market.

Late last year, for example, we launched three products based on training packages in India. These look at ways to train and assess workers and will be trialled by several Australian public and private providers there across the next 12 months.

I have asked Austrade to work with the international education sector this year, including with non-traditional players, to develop a long-term market development strategy out to 2025.

This will unearth new thinking and initiatives to support the potential for growth. It will complement the work of federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne, who is finalising a broader national strategy for the international education sector.

A spectacular opportunity lies before us. The real test is working out ways to make the most of it.

Andrew Robb is the Trade and Investment Minister.


Attachment B

Attachment BApproach to the AIE2025 consultation workshops

Workshops for smaller groups (Townsville, Darwin and Hobart) ran for two to two and half hours, and generally followed the format outlined for the larger groups below, with some modification to account for group size.

In all other locations, the workshops ran for four hours, overseen by an independent facilitator. Participants worked at table groups of between six and 10 people depending on the location and attendance. Output from the table groups was collated by Austrade and circulated electronically to location participants within days of each workshop. Each workshop was divided into four working sessions.

Workshop Session 1 – Scene Setting

The first 45 minutes of each workshop was devoted to setting the scene for the day’s discussion. Senior Austrade representatives provided an overview of the context for the development of AIE2025 (as summarised earlier in this report), including connection to Minister Pyne’s Draft National Strategy on International Education. Austrade’s specific remit to help grow the international education sector onshore in Australia and offshore in all its forms was emphasised.

Additionally, an introductory speaker at each location was tasked with challenging participants to think boldly and creatively, and to apply themselves to the co-creation of an innovative market development plan. Importantly, the distinction was made for participants that this was not intended as a plan for Austrade, but a plan for the sector as a whole, stewarded by Austrade but owned by the sector.

The introductory speakers at each location are listed below. Extracts from the remarks of selected speakers are at Attachment B.

Location Speaker Organisation

Sydney Day 1 Claire Field Claire Field & Associates

Sydney Day 2 Helen Zimmerman Navitas

Brisbane Claire Field Claire Field & Associates

Canberra Claire Field Claire Field & Associates

Perth Patrick Brothers Navitas

Adelaide Bill Spurr AO Education Adelaide

Melbourne Day 1 Fabian Marrone Hobsons Asia Pacific

Melbourne Day 2 Kay Lipson Swinburne Online

Following these initial remarks, participants were invited to introduce themselves to their table group colleagues. This exercise was aimed at identifying participants in the room with a different perspective on or relationship to international education. It was evident from participant lists in each location that many attendees were either new to their organisations which had long been involved in international education in Australia, or that there were many new organisations that had been drawn to the opportunities emerging within Australia’s international education sector. A sample of these new perspectives, stories and innovative business models and ideas was shared with the room to complete the scene setting session (see Attachment D).


Attachment B

Workshop Session 2 – Aspirations and Strategic Priorities

The language of the workshops was deliberately framed to reflect the genuineness of the opportunity for participants to co-create the development of a market development plan for Australia’s international education industry.

So why are we here?

•  to invite you into co-creating a bold 10 year vision for Australian International Education

•  to co-design and socialise a strong and engaging 10 year narrative for Australian International Education

•  to build new relationships and strengthen collaborations across the sector to unlock more potential

•  to identify Australia’s strategic advantages and areas to develop to realise the potential

AIE 2025 Consultations 5

Words such as ‘co-create’, ‘co-design’ and ‘collaborate’ invited participants to contribute constructively but also to be creative and bold in their thinking about the future shape and character of the sector.

This second session of each workshop (1¼ hours) required as a first step individual participants to identify their own aspirations and strategic priorities for international education.

Setting the framework

What should be the framework for the sector’s long term market development plan? •  Can we identify one overarching aspirational

statement? •  Can we agree on three key strategic priorities?


Each table group was then asked via a facilitated exercise to use the individual responses to develop one common aspirational statement and three strategic themes for AIE2025. Upon completion of the table group exercise, all participants voted on the output of the room to identify the aspirational statements and strategic themes that resonated with them most.


Attachment B

Workshop Session 3 – Bold Thinking

Table groups were then asked to tackle the co-creation of a market development plan. Participants were specifically directed to consider the mindset changes that would be needed to enable the sector to achieve sustainable but significant growth.

Given the competitive environment that is international education globally, the opportunity and the challenge presented by disruptive and enabling technologies, and the multiplicity of choice, wants and needs of the ultimate end user, the student, it will not be enough to simply continue to do as is done now if we wish to remain competitive globally. Participants were asked to consider the fundamental mindset changes or innovations that would be required to achieve systemic change as the basis of sustainable success for Australian international education.

A chance to change mindsets

•  Think outside our part of the ‘system’ in order to affect ‘systemic level change’

•  Leverage points in the system – identify things to: – amplify / do more of – dampen / mitigate / do less of

•  To achieve fundamental systemic change we must work at the level of paradigm or mindset change


The specific tasks assigned to tables in this 70 minute session were to consider three challenges.

Co-creating a market development plan Based on the aspirational vision and strategic priorities, how could we: •  Double student numbers onshore

– What mindset changes would be needed? Innovations?

•  Reach 10m people offshore – What mindset changes would be needed?

Innovations? •  In order to optimise implementation of AIE 2025,

identify the elements to be included in a market development plan

18 AIE 2025 Consultations

Once again the language of the workshop was deliberate – ‘mindset change’, ‘innovation, ‘reach, not teach’ – emphasising the need to think boldly, creatively and differently. Upon completion of the exercise, output of each table was shared with the whole group. This output was again included in the notes circulated to participants by Austrade following the workshop.


Attachment B

Workshop Session 4 – ‘That’s a Wrap’

The final session of the workshop called on select participants to share their views on the day’s proceedings. Some of these summary speakers were identified prior to the workshops, others were approached during each workshop. Speakers included:

Location Speaker Organisation

Sydney Day 1 Cratis Hippocrates

David Labalastier

Study Group

Insearch/University of Technology, Sydney UECA

Sydney Day 2 Aleksandr Voninski

Sue Blundell

Janet McGarry

The University of New South Wales

English Australia

YHA

Brisbane Helen Cook

Janelle Chapman

Lynne Wilbraham

ETS

TAFE Queensland International

Gympie Regional Council

Canberra Amy Burton

Chris Roberts

Study Canberra

Overseas Students Ombudsman

Perth Kelly Smith The University of Western Australia

Adelaide Sebastian Raneskold

Glen Vollebregt

Patrick Kearins

Flinders University

Student Rooms

Austrade

Melbourne Day 1 Phil Honeywood International Education Association of Australia

Melbourne Day 2 John Molony Deakin University

In addition, participants were given the opportunity to contribute thoughts from the floor, responding to the questions on the slide below.

Next steps – for you

What do I need to do back at work to advance this project and what do I want to see happen next in the Australian International Education sector? What was the most valuable thing about today?

30 AIE 2025 Consultations

To complete the each workshop, senior Austrade representatives outlined next steps for the project, including a time line for production of AIE2025 market development plan.


Attachment C

Attachment CQuotes from speakers on the AIE2025 Roadshow

Sue Blundell – Executive Director, English Australia

‘There’s a lot of people in this room who I’ve never met before, never knew existed, never talked to, never heard, never listened to and I’ve heard some perspectives and some views and some ideas today that have got me excited, and I think it’s because I normally talk to the same people and we’re probably all vulnerable to that, that we meet the same people at the same events, we go to the same conferences, we mix with people we like, that we have the same opinions of. And there’s people in this room that I’ve never listened to before and I want to talk to them again because I’ve learnt things today and I’ve been engaged in different ideas that I’ve never thought about before’.

‘But the downside of being risk averse is that we’re not open to opportunity and innovation and entrepreneurialism. So I think we need to do a lot of work to get that balance right, the risk balance’. – sue blundell

‘You know, companies outside of education I think take a much more healthy view of risk. I think our attitude within education tends to be more conservative and more traditional and maybe we need to break some of those boundaries in terms of how we view risk and opportunity’.

‘Someone at my table said that this is a once in a generation opportunity. How often do we get the Department of Education coming out with an international education strategy at the same time as our Trade Department is coming out with a market development strategy, at the same time as we have a government actually in power who’s talking about a cross-government approach to [the] industry at the same time as we have all of these consultations’.

Patrick Brothers – Group General Manager Strategy and Business Development, Navitas

‘I would like to share some 'outside in' observations. Infrastructure is a fascinating comparison to education. I had the privilege of spending the last three years working with the World Economic Forum, the B20 & G20 on the strategic infrastructure agenda. We had a similar challenge to what I see today [in international education], both long term issues and long term targets, balanced with trying to create an immediate sense of urgency, to get everybody moving, to get everybody mobilised in order to achieve that long term target’.

‘Globally and in Australia our education operating models are still quite old’.

‘While these models have been evolving, they are generally predicated on how we did business 10, 20, 30 years ago, yet we’re here having a conversation about achieving a target in 2025. For me, fundamental to achieving those targets or even sustaining the type of growth we’ve achieved over the last 10 years, will be changing the way we do things, changing our operating models, engaging with each other differently, thinking about it completely differently and not taking anything for granted’. – patrick brothers

‘Digital ... it’s overwhelming the amount of discussion about digital, yet there’s very little that we’re doing about it as a sector. We have got some fantastic champions and some leaders but if we are really going to move the needle, it won’t be about one or two of the institutions in Australia developing an advantage, it will be about education as a sector and as a community creating a national advantage so that there is national recognition that this is a capability that Australia is advantaged at. We’ve got a long way to go to move beyond talking about the opportunities in digital and really mobilising to achieve them’.


Attachment C

‘Associated with digital are innovation, incubation and investment. In terms of capital flows and similarly to infrastructure, there doesn’t appear to be much capital to invest... Check the government balance sheets around the world. We’re trying to work out how to deal with a lack of funding, not a surplus of funding. Yet when I catch up with the private investment community it sometimes appears that they don’t know what to do with all the capital that they’ve got... They’re investing in places that they’re often reluctant to because they’ve got to put it somewhere or they’ve got to give it back...’

Claire Field – Principal, Claire Field and Associates

‘The Trade Minister, Andrew Robb’s, challenge to the sector to educate one million students per year here in Australia is achievable if we ensure we focus on the student experience, student support and delivering high quality educational opportunities to both our domestic and international students’.

‘The OECD states that in 2009 (just over 5 years ago) there were 525 million Asian people in the global middle class. The OECD predicts that by 2020 (just 5 years from now) that figure will be 3.2 billion, and by 2030 it will be 4.9 billion.’

‘Lifting such large numbers of people out of poverty in such a short period of time is unprecedented in human history. And the fact that this is happening in our region offers us an extraordinary opportunity to assist and support our Asian neighbours to profoundly change their lives’. – claire field

‘I understand some of you may cringe at my focus on ‘non-accredited’ training, but let’s be real, the rest of the world doesn’t cringe, in fact they value what they refer to as ‘corporate training’ and make extensive use of it … it’s time to get serious about the opportunities. There is extraordinary demand for Australian education and training to lift business productivity in the Asian region’.

‘Digital of course is changing our lives in ways we never imagined. It will continue to transform, disrupt and make viable opportunities that currently seem out of reach’.

Bill Spurr – Chair, Education Adelaide

‘I’m particularly going to talk about South Australia, of course, we’ve focused on five industries to stimulate our exports, our employment and our economic growth. And they are, or were: advanced manufacturing, mining, defence, agribusiness and wine’.

‘Now for a whole number of reasons that we all know, only one of those industries, that’s agribusiness, is mentioned in the latest Deloitte Access Business Outlook for South Australia … as a key industry going forward. The other two for South Australia are tourism and international education’. – bill spurr

‘The second suggestion for SA going forward is part-time work and post-graduation employment opportunities I think are key challenges in South Australia. But if we can get this right, the word of mouth of advocacy will take over. We need to do something here that’s out of the box’.

‘I think if we can grow the SACE, or South Australian Certificate of Education availability beyond Malaysia, right through Asia if possible and really work on that, I think it will give us a good leg up’.


Attachment C

Aleksandr Voninski – Executive Director, UNSW International, University of New South Wales

‘There is a great diversity in the room and I think it’s fantastic. If I look at my table alone, we had representatives from universities, pathway providers, service providers, consultants and agents, and I think this is probably evident at all tables around the room’.

‘A key challenge as well, particularly from a large research intensive university like UNSW, is capacity. We’re currently approaching about 16,000 international students if we look at our full degree study roll and exchange numbers. Capacity is not just about physical space, it’s also about changing that paradigm, the old way of thinking about how we structure our academic year for example’.

‘Another challenge or an area … [is] visa policy and what sort of visa policy do we need in the year 2025 to support this type of agenda? What type of visa policy do we need to support the flexible movement of student human capital across borders because, really, to grow, to double our numbers … onshore. [In this regard] a whole of government approach [to visa policy] … is vital if we want to be a success in 2025’.

‘Can we innovate course delivery to contain costs? We’ve talked about paradigm change, but what about a mindset change? Can we deliver courses that are shorter, more flexible and more cost effective to both students and to providers? To grow our reach, can we provide Australian content offshore in Mandarin, Bahasa and Arabic?’. – aleksandr voninski

Helen Zimmerman – Executive General Manager, Navitas

‘I do think we can have students in Australia numbering close to a million, and I certainly think that we can serve 8-10 million students globally with an Australian educational involvement in their education. It might be through technology, it might be through collaboration, it might be through human capital building but we can do it. I think for me the big question is will we be able to make the shifts that allow us to do this’.

‘And that I think will need a real change in our mindset and our business operating models. In the how, the what, the when, the where and the why?’ – helen zimmerman

‘And we can’t achieve, I think, Australian International Education 2025 if we don’t do some other things. We need coalitions of the aligned, and that’s within education. We need public-private collaborations, we need collaborations with diverse ways of delivering education, with niche providers. We need a whole lot of change that we’re actually not really addressing at the moment. We need it with business and industry. We’re starting to talk about work integrated learning and the needs for strategies to engage with industry but we need to actually be thinking about what’s the role of business in achieving AIE2025. We need much deeper engagement with government and policy makers and that’s why this consultation is so important because I think that’s really a way of going forward’.


Attachment D

Attachment DOrganisational profiles

ABC International

ABC International (www.australiaplus.com/international/) delivers Australian content to the Asia Pacific region and around the world, Australia Plus is powered by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Australia Plus produces and curates video, online and social media content targeting local interests. We publish content in eight languages: English, Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia, Khmer, Vietnamese, Burmese, Tok Pisin and French. We deliver a mix of business and economic news and information, education and insights into Australian life in all the key Asian and Pacific markets including Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Hong Kong, PNG and China.

The ABC is seeking partnerships with Australian education providers to collaboratively develop commercial digital education products for the Australia Plus audience. Additionally, we are looking to source human interest stories to connect with the existing Australia Plus audience.

With significant market reach, a new web portal in China and an ever increasing audience, ABC International is confident that through the right partnerships and the right products, we can significantly highlight the Australian education sector’s creative and global facing potential.

For further information, please contact us at: [email protected]

Circulus Education

Circulus Education (www.circulus.com.au) is an education services company that supports Australian VET and higher education providers. It provides advice and assistance of how to embed best practice online education strategies into their operations. Our services are designed to help education and training providers to take part in the international education market.

Recently our multi-national team have been working on a project with the Albanian Government and Risi Albania, funded by the Embassy of Switzerland in Albania. The project is designed to improve the employment prospects for Albanian youth. Stakeholder organisations have joined together to revive the local economy by training Albanian youth with strong information technology skill-sets, and preparing them for outsourced working opportunities with Western nations.

Currently, our specific virtual learning platform, Almooc, provides education to over 28,000 Albanian-speaking students, offering courses in English, maths, physics, chemistry and coding (www.almooc.com).

Circulus Education feels that Australia is well positioned to create high volume, long term sustainable education and employment pathways through partnering with international governments and corporations.

Many countries have a growing need for quality education to support their own economic and workforce development objectives and the only way to achieve this is by partnering with countries that hold a strong reputable education foundation such as Australia, and have the ability to support and integrate into greater international education markets.

By partnering with other countries through strong and long lasting agreements, we feel that both Australia and the partnering countries will be able to share information to solve much of each other’s economic and workforce development objectives.

CISA

The Council of International Students Australia (CISA) (www.cisa.edu.au) is the national peak representative organisation for all international students in Australia. CISA advocates for the interest and needs for all international students, the ultimate stakeholder group impacted by changes to current and future policies in international education.

CISA runs a community engagement project – I am not Australian, but I have an Australian Story to raise awareness about the importance of international students to the wider community. CISA advocates for stronger engagement and integration between international students and the Australia community, ensuring them a memorable Australian experience while studying and living in Australia.


Attachment D

The exciting part about the future of Australian international education for an international student is the future unlimited opportunities. Opportunities to make ties and connect with friends from countries across the world, and for individuals to be transformed through the education and training experience delivered by the institutions here. The commitment from the government to look into a stronger and working relationship with international student body in finding solutions to issues faced by international students is also something that is exciting and something that we very much look forward to.

CPA Australia

CPA Australia (www.cpaaustralia.com.au) is one of the world's largest accounting bodies, with more than 150,000 members across 120 countries. Some 60 years since we first established a presence in Asia, our membership across the region has grown to more than 36,000.

CPA Australia actively promotes our brand to ensure we attract people of the highest calibre to enter the profession and add value to the community. We actively engage with students on university campuses around Australia, where CPA Australia and our professional Program are introduced to commerce and management students from around the world. As the accounting profession continues to globalise, our work to broaden awareness and regard for the CPA designation in order to remain relevant to both our current and future members becomes increasingly important.

To this end, in 2012 we launched thenakedceo.com online mentoring site, where the chief executive of CPA Australia invites students and professionals to join him behind the scenes with global leaders and brands to impart key insights and strategies for success. Since its launch, thenakedceo.com has generated more than 2.5 million site visits and seen our chief executive personally respond to more than one thousand career related questions via the site, as well as countless more questions from students during university visits. The outstanding level of online engagement has seen the commissioning and global release of a book, The Naked CEO – The truth you need to build a big life.

CPA Australia looks forward to working together with our partners in the education sector to maintain Australia’s high standards and status as the preferred destination of so many international students.

EduBytes International

EduBytes International (www.edu-bytes.org) is an organisation providing solutions for vocational education providers and facilitators. We focus on finding solutions for:

› ASQA compliance for evidence collection and mapping

› educational videos and resources

› administration data for AVETIMISS compliance

› e-Learning support

EduBytes aim is to help Australian educational institutions use cutting edge e-learning and software to reach new markets, through the power of digital technology, and the latest innovations in administration management. For the first time, vocational education providers based in Australia can offer work-place skills-based training and assessment using state-of-the-art e-learning management systems. New video response technology brings your college to the student, no matter where they are. Servicing international markets and employers with courses, apprenticeships, practical on-site assessment, and work-place inductions are all possible using virtual class-rooms and interactive cloud-based technology, without the need for international travel or expensive overseas campuses.

By utilising these technologies, Australia can become the 'Google' of international education. Put your campus in the pocket of millions.

Global English

Global English’s (www.globalenglish.company) stake in Australian international education is as an innovative exporter of Australian education into China and beyond.

Global English was founded on the belief that all children have the right to an educationally rigorous, supportive and fun experience in education.

We’ve combined the latest thinking coming out of deep research in neuroscience and behavioural science with world leading game designers and educators to create King’s School, an engaging virtual language learning world on mobile devices. At King’s School they learn English, build resilience, creativity and independent thinking.

User-centred design is at the heart of the design process of King’s School where students have co-created the environment and will benefit from an algorithm delivering a personalised learning experience. The entire platform has been built from the ground up with the child learner in mind.


Attachment D

China is the first market where children aged 5−11 are the target users. A bespoke curriculum has been produced blending global best practice in English as a second language and the local Chinese curriculum to give children in China the very best chance of achieving their educational objectives while attuned to their specific cultural needs.

Australia stands in a unique global position, situated culturally and geographically close to the driving force behind global economic growth, Asia. Both cultures share a deep appreciation of education and a ‘can-do’ attitude. There is vast potential for adaptive, agile companies supported by AIE2025 to make a significant economic and social contribution.

Google

Australian educators are ingenious. In 1948, long before any mainstream acceptance of the role of technology in education, the Alice Springs Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) base, was used to broadcast school lessons to outback children. The idea was the brainchild of Miss Adelaide Miethke, a RFDS Vice-President and former inspector of girls’ schools who had noticed that all ‘bush kids’ were taught to use the RFDS radio service in the event of emergency. Why then, she asked, couldn’t the radio network be also used to teach?

Today, the result of this novel application of technology is what we endearingly call the School of the Air (SOA). It is a timely reminder of the great benefits of technology – geographical challenges can be surmounted, opportunities can be created, and, most importantly, pedagogical interactions can be humanised.

As our nation considers the best way to reach the next billion students around the world, the story of the SOA is a timely reminder that we have done this before. In a symbolic sense, Australian International Education 2025 (AIE2025) is a natural extension of our pedagogical history.

At Google (www.google.com.au), we believe that Australian education can help solve access and equity issues around the globe. There is no doubt that an in-country experience will always remain as an integral part of the suite of international education modalities. However, this should not diminish or be to the exclusion of the idea of Australian online content, provided by an Australian institution, with an Australian qualification, in an overseas environment. In short, flexibility is key. A nuanced approached to the delivery of Australian education will allow for significant strategic value – it is the only way we can meet the needs of diverse students from diverse economies.

We are supportive of AIE2025 and eagerly await its results. We look forward to partnering with Australian educators and look forward to being of assistance – both now and into the future.

Hunter TAFE

Hunter TAFE (www.hunter.tafensw.edu.au) has recently developed a partnership agreement with Assocom Institute of Baking Technology in India. AIBTM (Assocom Institute of Baking Technology and Management) is providing quality education in the form of exclusive courses designed to gain knowledge in every single aspect of the bakery profession.

AIBTM currently has a similar collaboration from AIB International, Kansas (USA) and Hyejeon College, South Korea to train 10,000 bakery students over 10 years. AIBTM is a complete teaching, training, and research facility, with modern facilities provided by the Indian Government and courses designed under the guidance from American Institute of Baking (AIB), who are facilitating the training programs with AIBTM.

The proposed AIBTM programs are:

› Two-year Diploma in Bakery Technology and Management

› One-year Post Graduate Diploma in Baking Science

› Two-year Diploma in Patisserie and Artisan Bakery Craft

The facilities of AIBTM include:

› housing

› 100 per cent placement for qualified candidates

› state-of-the-art facilities including an e-library

› 24 hours Wi-Fi internet

› easy access by transport (road and rail).

Students in India are also able to access part of the curriculum through the Hunter TAFE online learning platform.

What is exciting for our organisation is being able to identify opportunities both on line and face-to-face products and developing a point of difference in the market place.


Attachment D

My Freight Career

My Freight Career (www.myfreightcareer.com.au) has been a part of the Australian vocational training industry (VET) for the past fifteen years. As a leader in innovation and outcomes related processes My Freight Career ensures that students receive quality training aligned to the international freight and logistics industries.

Until recently, the main focus of the business had been to improve, qualify and validate the need for structured vocational qualification on a national basis, within the logistics and international freight sector.

Through working with global logistics organisations though we have been able to showcase and benchmark our method of training against similar companies globally. The results from this indicate that our business model not only stands up to international competitors, but in many cases exceeds expectations.

Working with global companies in this growth industry our research has identified a need for our specialist training internationally with My Freight Career now looking at taking our unique business model and quality industry training to rest of the world.

With the knowledge that there is a global skills shortage, My Freight Career is excited about the numerous opportunities for our business and the potential for growth in both emerging and established markets. This will not only benefit our business but will also assist in showcasing Australian international education globally.

Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium

Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium (www.reefHQ.com.au) is the Australia Government's National Education Centre for the Great Barrier Reef and the world's largest living coral reef aquarium.

Reef HQ Aquarium is a member of an EduTourism consortium that has been established in Townsville. The vision is to establish North Queensland as a global destination of excellence for faculty led study abroad, experiential learning programs.

The Townsville North Queensland Region is working to position itself as a destination of excellence for faculty led study abroad teaching and learning. An EduTourism consortium has been created made up of world class research institutions (James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science), natural resource management agencies (the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority) and high standard, nature based, experiential learning facilitators.

What sets our region apart from other Australian based destinations and others globally is that it's quite literally the epicentre of diversity for experiential learning in the tropics. Environmentally the region is a gateway to the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef, tropical islands, wet tropics rainforests, national parks, Ramsar wetlands and Australian outback experiences, there is also a rich Indigenous culture. Additionally, the region has well established linkages to agriculture (agribusiness); aquaculture; research and development; conservation; and sustainable business operations and technology as Australia’s largest solar city.

All this coupled together makes for a unique infusion of experiences that would traditionally be sought out as part of a leisure holiday and high level education programs supported and/or facilitated by internationally renowned organisations and passionate locals.

What makes us excited about the future of Australian international education is that Australia is awakening not just as an alternative but as a preferred destination for international students personally and tertiary institutions that offer study abroad opportunities.

Student Rooms

Student Rooms (www.studentrooms.com.au) is a supplier of quality, affordable and furnished accommodation for university students in South Australia with a network and pipeline of approximately 300 rooms in shared-living dwellings throughout Adelaide.

Studies by the Australian Research Council have revealed a lack of affordable housing for international students in Australia, which is a significant barrier to the growth of our country’s largest service export.

Student Rooms is leading the charge to solve student accommodation shortages in South Australia with our all-inclusive approach to affordable student housing.


Attachment D

Student Rooms provides fully furnished student accommodation in quality share houses located on major transportation routes throughout inner-metropolitan Adelaide. Being in close proximity to the city, and on major public transport routes, but not in the CDB, allows Student Rooms to provide high-quality accommodation at half to two-thirds the price of city offerings, without a reduction in amenity.

Our all-inclusive approach allows students to pay for all their monthly housing expenses – including high-speed internet with individual data metering, cleaners, gardeners and all utilities – on a single bill.

All of Student Rooms’ housemates are individually interviewed to build safe, friendly and culturally diverse collegial environments that enhance the learning experience of our students away from the university without the expense of private residential colleges.

What make us excited about the future of Australian international education is, according to reports in The Australian, international students contributed a record $17.5 billion to the economy during the 12 months to the end of March 2015. To maximise this opportunity, Australia’s tertiary education sector must come together to provide the necessary infrastructure and services to ensure Australia remains a competitive destination for international students.

Students may spend 10 to 20 hours per week in class and some more time on campus, but as far as the accommodation provider goes, students will often spend 100 contact hours with them per week. Student Rooms is uniquely placed to significantly contribute to their overall experience and help Australia build its reputation as a world-class international study destination.

Unitransact and GoP2P

Unitransact (www.unitransact.com) has two businesses, one is Unitransact B2B related to international transactions and the other, GoP2P (www.gop2p.net) being a peer to peer FX platform aimed at benefiting international students.

As all international students entering Australia are required to bring a certain amount of money with them, traditional financial institutions fees and rates can really impact on students financially. Our platform will allow the students to perform foreign exchange at the more favourable rate of 0.5 per cent, a fraction the current charge of up to five per cent.

Unitransact is excited about the future of Australian international education and envisage that our business will have the perfect model to leverage the Australian economy.

We see that Australia could be benefiting more from the international student market by a re-distribution of where students study in Australia as well as by educating the public of the benefits of this sector, so they are perceived as not a burden, but a source of generating income to the country.

The University of Adelaide

The University of Adelaide (www.adelaide.edu.au) has an extensive involvement in international education and international research collaboration. International students represent 25 per cent of the University’s student load and this proportion is growing steadily. The University of Adelaide is one of Australia’s Group of Eight, research-intensive universities and is consistently ranked among the top 1 per cent of universities in the world. Established in 1874, the University is Australia’s third oldest university and an iconic Adelaide institution, contributing significantly to the health, wealth and wellbeing of the state and a vital part of the cultural, social and intellectual life of the community. The University has a strong reputation for international research and teaching excellence and for producing graduates that make an impact on the world. The University has produced over 100 Rhodes Scholars, including Australia’s first Indigenous winner with five Nobel Laureates among its alumni community.

The University is involved in training new global leaders in a range of disciplines and professions for the local and global contexts. The training centres on how to use contemporary world leading research evidence to inform high quality professional practice and policy. Many of the University’s alumni hold senior leadership positions. An example of one such program of activity is the University’s extensive involvement in training medical practitioners, nurses and managers in health care leadership and evidence based practice. At the University the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) is the international not-for-profit, research and development arm of the School of Translational Science at the University. The Institute and its collaborating entities promote and support the synthesis, transfer and utilisation of evidence through identifying feasible, appropriate, meaningful and effective healthcare practices to assist in the improvement of healthcare outcomes globally. In Shenzhen the University is involved in the training of primary health care leaders to lead the development of the primary health care system. Over 500 leaders have been trained in this program and they have made a major contribution to leading the implementation of the Chinese government’s health care reforms. These reforms


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are targeted at producing major benefits to the Chinese people in terms of health, wellbeing and access to reasonably priced and high quality health services.

The future of Australian international education is indeed vibrant. We are enriched by having the best and brightest from other countries come to Australia and to contribute to the global partnerships and friendships formed by working together. Our knowledge and expertise promotes the improvement of the human condition globally and Australia should be proud of its contribution. There is now widespread recognition of the strategic significance of international education to the global economy and Australia is stepping up in assuming a leadership role in this arena.

Virginia Park Station

Virginia Park Station (www.virginiaparkstation.com.au) is a unique setting for a training facility. The cattle station has been a training facility for a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) for the past 17 years, delivering over half of all Queensland’s Certificates II and III in agriculture. Virginia Park is now focussed on delivering training in agriculture to international students.

Situated only one hour from Townsville and 30 mins from Charters Towers, the cattle station is a fully functioning beef operation. We recognise that there is increasing international focus on Australia’s clean and efficient beef production. There is a market in other countries for sharing information on some of the intricacies of how our beef industry operates. We believe there is an opportunity to join our current businesses with the burgeoning international education sector and provide training in agriculture for such students.

The government’s recent international trade deals have not just broken down some of the barriers that exist for the trade of tangible goods, but they have also made the world a smaller place for the delivery of services such as education.

Given the current government’s commitment to developing this sector, along with our country’s strengthening relationships with Asia, the opportunities for working with international students are extensive and exciting.

White Cloud Global

White Cloud Global (www.whitecloudglobal.com) provides our clients with solutions to learning delivery, professional development and assessment needs by utilising the latest cloud based technologies.

Our business has a number of engagements and opportunities where our capabilities in the automation of learning and assessment will make a significant contribution to:

› higher education organisations that are migrating from paper-based to online assessments

› assessment and certification organisations, with an ongoing dependency on human-marking, that require tools to effectively manage, monitor and report on these activities

› education providers with opportunities to deploy optimisation solutions that can deliver significant efficiencies

› education providers that see adaptive learning and adaptive testing as critical to their success and efficacy.

We are confident that working with us will help Australian education providers to be world-class in design, delivery and cost-effectiveness and to enhance their competitiveness in the international education marketplace.

A project that we are particularly excited about will provide English as an additional language to students, with the opportunity to practice their IELTS skills online and receive immediate feedback. This immediacy will be enabled by the use of machine learning capabilities to automatically mark free text questions that currently require human intervention.

We are excited about the future of Australian international education as the goals for the sector are ambitious, but achievable, and the opportunities are boundless. We believe that our technologies and capabilities can play a key role in both onshore and offshore environments.


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YHA

YHA (www.yha.com.au) is a not for profit, membership organisation with a mission to provide low cost hostel accommodation and to encourage all, but especially young people, to travel and learn about themselves and the world. Our mission integrates well with the aspirations of international students coming to Australia, where studying is just a part of the overall life experience. Our organisation enhances the international student experience through booking and providing travel information on short weekend breaks or holidays.

YHA is also a part of the Tourism 2020 initiative, to grow the total visitor economy. Tourism 2020 has been a good motivator for our organisation and provides a platform to link to all sectors of the tourism industry and provide an opportunity to have a voice with government in terms of policy.

Youth tourism accounts for more than 10 per cent of all international tourist arrivals to Australia (not including education students). YHA targets international students through a range of on-shore campaigns while they are in Australia – O weeks, digital marketing, events, meet and greets to name a few examples. We also lobby state tourism bodies and Tourism Australia to be more active in marketing offshore to potential students, to position the tourism experience in Australia as another reason why they should choose to study here.

There is just such growth potential for our business if the number of students coming to Australia continues to grow. We believe that by encouraging students to travel while in the country also helps address issues around the quality of the experience they have in Australia – it enable them to experience the Australian lifestyle, meet and network with the community, and to step outside their comfort zones. The happier students are in our country, the better they will study and the more positive message they will give to peers back home who may be considering Australia. Our hope is for the sectors to work together as the opportunities are endless.


Attachment E & F

Attachment EApproach to the categorisation of aspirational visionsEach workshop participant was asked to formulate their own aspirational vision for AIE2025. During the course of the consultations over 560 individual aspirations were provided. Austrade has undertaken analysis of these aspirational visions by attempting to categorise the input under similar themes. It should be noted that these suggested headings are merely suggestions for ease of analysis. It is important that they do not become fixed assumptions as there is a great deal of richness, diversity and nuance in individual statements that sit beneath each heading. Indeed, there is also a great deal of subjectivity when multiple people have been involved in what was a large scale categorisation process.

The second filter that Austrade has applied to the analysis of the aspirational visions is one that asks, is the heading reflective of a true outcome – an articulation of what we hope to achieve. Or is it more accurately described as an enabler – how we get to the outcome. To that end, six category headings were identified as being outcomes or ‘end states’ and a seventh grouping was categorised as ‘other’ and those responses were added to relevant strategic theme category. The headings and their relative weighting are provided below:

› Provider of choice 17%

› Quality 17%

› Numbers Export Driven 16%

› Global benefit 13%

› Employability / Outcomes 7%

› Offshore and Onshore 4%

› Other, categorised as ‘enablers’ 26%

Attachment FApproach to the categorisation of strategic prioritiesEach workshop participant was asked to formulate up to three strategic priorities that would contribute to achieving their aspirational vision. These priorities are ‘enablers’, or how we get to the desired outcome (aspirational vision).

During the course of the consultations some 2,000 separate strategic priorities were provided. Austrade has undertaken analysis of these priorities by, as was done by table groups during the workshops, attempting to categorise the input under common themes. It should be noted that these suggested headings are merely suggestions for ease of analysis. As noted in Attachment E, it is important that they do not become fixed assumptions as there is a great deal of richness, diversity and nuance in individual priorities that sit beneath each heading. Indeed, there is also a great deal of subjectivity when multiple people have been involved in what was a large scale categorisation process.

The following is a list of the category headings and their relative weighting:

1. Student Experience 12%2. Collaboration 12%3. Reputation and Branding 10%4. Innovation 10%5. Quality 7%6. Employability 7%7. Government Coordination 7%8. Diversification 6%9. Student/Client Centric 5%10. Growth 4%11. Sector Specific 3%12. Industry and Community Engagement 3%13. Sector Engagement and Cooperation 3%14. TNE 3%15. Global Relevance 3%16. Technology 2%17. Investment 1%18. Alumni 1%19. Global Citizen 1%20. Research 1%21. Regional 1%22. Outbound Mobility 1%

It should be noted that a couple of these categories could have been collapsed into together, such as ‘student experience’ and ‘student/client centric’ (combined weighting of 17%) or ‘technology’ and ‘innovation’ (combined weighting of 12%), however Austrade believed there was benefit to having a greater degree of granularity in this list of enablers.

Documents

Outcomes from AIE2025 Consultation Workshops