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Media Release
$1.5 MILLION FOR UNIVERSITIES' OFFSHORE QUALITY ASSURANCE
10 June 2004 MIN 732/04
The Australian Government will provide $1.5 million from the $113 million International Education Budget Package announced last year to help Australian universities further enhance the quality assurance aspects of their offshore operations.
The package provides $10.4 million over four years for offshore quality assurance to protect the quality, integrity and customer satisfaction of those studying with Australian providers overseas.
Every year Australian universities enrol more than 73,000 students offshore. Projections for the next ten years suggest growth in offshore higher education provision is likely to outstrip growth onshore. It is estimated that by 2012 income from offshore provision for all education sectors will be worth more than $1.5 billion a year.
To ensure that Australia can maintain and increase its competitiveness in the global education market, it is essential that it protects its reputation as a source of high quality higher education by appropriately assuring quality in the provision of offshore higher education.
The Australian Government will provide $1.4 million in grant funding for universities to develop good practice models for various aspects of offshore delivery.
This funding will help universities identify and develop key institutional priorities that will better position them for the future. The project results will be of enormous benefit to all universities, providing a useful source of information on which to base enhancements to Australia's highly regarded quality assurance framework.
The initiative will be jointly administered by the Department of Education, Science and Training and the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee, with applications for grants to be invited shortly.
A further $100,000 will be provided to the Australian Universities' Quality Assurance Agency (AUQA) to enhance its current offshore auditing capacity.
Last year's Budget also provided funding of $590,000 per year from 2005 to commission AUQA to conduct audits of Australian higher education provision offshore on a 'whole-of-country' basis. My Department has recently released a discussion paper and consultation strategy to facilitate discussion about this initiative.
The Australian Government is committed to working with the higher education sector to maintain the quality and global competitiveness of Australia's universities. Today's announcement represents an important step in enhancing quality in the higher education sector. Over the next two years my Department will be working closely with stakeholders in the higher education sector, and in other sectors, to further enhance offshore quality.
Further details can be obtained at www.backingaustraliasfuture.gov.au/implementation/quality.htm
Media Contacts:
Dr Nelson’s Office: Ross Hampton 0419 484 095
Dept of Education, Science & Training: Robin Poke 0412 738 087
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