Education begins to add up

It’s not easy to find some economic data that gives hope for the future, especially with all those naysayers down in Canberra, but I was pleasantly surprised this week to learn how well how Australian education is performing at the moment.

Despite its problems, Vocation being but one example, the education sector is the current standout performer among Australia’s top export industries. It is now worth $17.5 billion a year, which still means it trails coal at about $40 billion, or the top performer iron ore at over $70 billion, but it does mean that education is the third-largest export, even bigger than any other commodity or manufactured export, and ahead of inbound tourism (worth $14.5 billion a year).

The other sector set to make a substantial contribution is Australia’s LNG industry with the new Queensland developments set to boost the industry’s contribution by 36.4 per cent to $24.4 billion in 2015-16 and that’s just the beginning of its growth phase.

But indications are that the education sector is also still in a growth phase, coming out of the slump back in 2010 when not only was it slugged by a high Australian dollar, but found itself the centre of international attention surrounding racial abuse and student safety concerns.

According to the Financial Review nearly 600,000 were enrolled in onshore educational institutions last year, including 250,000 in universities. This year’s total number of student enrolments is 11.2 per cent ahead of last year in the four months up to April.

The Federal Government is aware of this growth spurt and is examining ways of simplifying, streamlining and broadening student visa processing. Maybe we will see something positive out of Canberra for a change.

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