Time to Turn Head to the West

Sarath Shyam
The conventional wisdom of average Indian students will tell them to go for the US or the UK, if they are in pursuit of an international education experience. However, as the US and the UK appear to be shutting their doors with anti-immigrant rhetoric and tighter rules that make it difficult to stay on after the course is over, it seems like many Indian students have taken the opposite direction to complete their global degree programme. Now, the wind is blowing to the west - majorly to Australia and New Zealand.

As of November 2017, more than 68,000 Indian students were studying in Australian institutions, up 14.65 percent over the same period in 2016. By February 2018, 60,062 Indian students have already gone to Australia, a 16.8 percent growth compared with the corresponding period in 2017. New Zealand on the other side is not far behind in terms of international student growth. According to the statistics released by the New Zealand high commission, 28 per cent increase has been recorded in the number of Indian students choosing to study at New Zealand in 2017. The trend continued into 2018 with a further six per cent increase in the university enrolment. So, what makes studying in Australia and New Zealand an attractive proposition for India students?

Comparing to the education system in the UK where students decide on a major and stick to it, Degrees of Universities in Australia and New Zealand are much more flexible. The education programmes are more like the US where a wide range of options are available for the students in the first year before narrowing down the choices later on. In Bachelors arts degrees, students can choose subjects from other faculties and it is not at all unusual for them to change their major half way through the programme. Management degrees allow students to explore the other branches as part of an interdisciplinary approach. However, choosing the best from the numerous available options is always a tough task.

In this issue, we have identified 'Top 10 Promising Business Schools in Australia and New Zealand - 2018' that are offering innovative business education to the international students. On the cover, we feature is RMIT University, which is considered as Australia's one of the top five universities for international exchange. Commenced in 1887, RMIT University has a network of 400,000 alumni in over 130 countries and of its 82,000 students, 15 per cent are international students.

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