Australian universities’ overseas student numbers will return to “decent growth” next year, but the intake will be less able academically, an analyst has said. Daniel Guhr, managing director of US-based Illuminate Consulting Group, was speaking ahead of the Nafsa: Association of International Educators’ annual conference, held in Houston, where his firm launched a database to analyse overseas student performance, The Australian reported. He predicted that the Australian sector’s international market will grow by 6 to 7 per cent after a limp 2012. This assumed, he added, that visa streamlining and post-study work rights prove attractive to applicants. But he warned that the country would attract lower-quality students than 10 or 20 years ago because the Australian brand had been “damaged”. “Part of the perception is that Australia actually didn’t deliver the classroom quality it marketed. In a sense, it became a victim of its own recruiting success,” he said.
Source: Times Higher Education http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=420207&c=1