From Perth Now:
CHINESE students could soon study virtually fee-free at WA universities under a groundbreaking deal to help the state capture more of the multi-billion dollar international higher education industry.
In return, WA university students would also be able to study without paying international student fees for a semester in China, The Sunday Times can reveal.
Agreement details are yet to be confirmed but would likely involve students paying fees to their home country without additional international study charges.
Education Minister Peter Collier said WA needed to do more to attract students from China, Vietnam and India, particularly given the state’s economic downturn.
Despite WA’s “world-class” universities, 11 state training providers and “second-to none” lifestyle, the state attracts just 7.8 per cent of Australia’s $17.5 billion international student market. NSW and Victoria both lured four times the number of foreign students.
Who knows, perhaps this will attract more students as opposed to cannibalising the eastern market. A free education with a tan is pretty tempting and it means less pressure to be enslaved by 7-Eleven, so long as you don’t mind a one bedroom apartment without a bedroom. Gotta back fill that immense housing glut:
Then again, if it is only one semester it is meaningless.
