Feature
Issue No. 6 - July/September 2002
School's in Adelaide
Education has crept up the ladder of South Australia’s top-selling export products, to the point where the State’s academic infrastructure is earning $millions per year.
The peak body tasked with gaining more of the world education market share is Education Adelaide, a small executive body based in Grenfell Street under the leadership of director, Patrick Markwick-Smith. The Education Adelaide team has an impressive gauge of progress—overseas student numbers increased by 20 per cent during the past academic year.
At the start of the 2002, there were about 7,500 full-fee paying students studying in Adelaide. This represents a 53% growth in numbers since 1999, when Education Adelaide was established.
China is our fastest growing market, with student numbers almost doubling every two years, from a handful four years ago. Chinese students now constitute 15% of enrolments making them already one of the largest national groups.
This year, full-fee paying students will bring to South Australia, conservatively, $200m in export dollars. Study tours and offshore enrolments will generate a further $34m. These figures exclude earnings from visits by students’ families.
Of this $75m will go to households and other accommodation providers and $60m will be spent on food, clothing, transport and entertainment.
While no figures are available, there are grounds for claiming that 7,500 students support the employment of at least 25...
