Home > Contents > Chapter 6 - Outcome 3: Research, innovation and internationalisation

Outcome 3: Research, innovation and internationalisation

Section 1 – Description
Section 2 – Our strategic priorities
Section 3 - other activities that broadly support Outcome 3
Section 4 – Summary of the achievements against this Outcome

Outcome 3 – Australian institutions advance the knowledge base, contribute to the national innovation system and participate effectively in the global development of knowledge and skills

Section 1 – Description

Commonwealth investment in higher education research and research training supports the development of new knowledge and new applications of knowledge. This underpins the national innovation system and stimulates new business development and jobs growth. The Commonwealth encourages universities to be active partners with enterprises and other research organisations, to facilitate the flow of knowledge, people and expertise both locally and internationally. Specific investment in research training, one of the vital functions of the higher education system, ensures the growth of the trained researcher workforce and the ongoing transfer of knowledge and technique.

The Government is also committed to fostering opportunities for Australians in the international community. This is achieved through its:

Government leadership in the global development of skills and knowledge contributes to the recognition of Australia as a culturally, scientifically, technologically and intellectually sophisticated country.

Strong bilateral, multilateral and regional relationships enhance international cooperation. They enable us to share Australian expertise with other countries, to learn from them, and to collaborate to mutual benefit in science, education and training. Australian Education International promotes and markets our education and training system in collaboration with and on behalf of Australian industry. It uses both Australian-based staff and an extensive offshore network.

Through the work of the Department of Education, Science and Training International Services, Australian education and training expertise is showcased internationally through consultancies, study tours and presentations for overseas visitors.

To protect the interests of overseas students, the Commonwealth regulates the education export industry in collaboration with State and Territory governments and industry providers. Reform of this part of the education and training industry was a priority for 2001-02.

Through the National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition, the Commonwealth continued its support for overseas trained professionals. This support included providing information, advice and assistance in relation to the recognition of overseas professional qualifications and skills, and negotiations on the recognition of Australian qualifications by other countries.

In future years, the department’s science functions will be reported on under Outcome 3. This year, science is reported on in Chapter 7.

The total resources invested in Outcome 3 are set out in Table 17.

Table 17: Resources invested in Outcome 3: Research, innovation and internationalisation.

* Additional Estimates.
** Note: the Departmental Outputs figures do not include resources provided free of charge.

Return to top

Contribution of Outputs to Outcome 3

In the department’s Portfolio Budget Statements published in May 2001, Outcome 3 was supported by two Output Groups:

In the department’s Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements, published following the Administrative Arrangements Order of 26 November 2001, Outcome 3 was revised. It now includes three Output Groups:

For this transitional year only, for the purposes of clarity, and consistency through the year, Output Group 3.2 is being reported on separately in Chapter 7. The reporting structure and information used for the science function in the former Department of Industry, Science and Resources is quite different from the Department of Education, Science and Training approach.

Output Group 3.1 Higher Education research and research training

In 2001-02, the Commonwealth provided funding for higher education research and research training. This output group previously included programmes which are now administered and reported on by the Australian Research Council.

Output Group 3.3: Internationalisation of Australian education and training

In 2001-02, the Commonwealth provided funding to support international participation, particularly by providing opportunities for Australian students and teachers to study in another country. Scholarships, fellowships and exchanges promoted Australian capabilities offshore and enabled us to learn from other education and training systems.

The funding also supported the National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition, which provides information, advice, assistance and assessment services in relation to the recognition of overseas qualifications and skills.

Details of actual performance against the performance indicators provided for each Output Group can be found in Appendix 9.

Return to top

Section 2 – Our strategic priorities

Priority One - Strengthen the ability of universities to generate and transfer new knowledge and develop the research skills of the workforce

Backing Australia’s Ability

Improving Australia’s knowledge base and national innovation system were among the Government’s major priorities in 2001 and 2002. Much of the focus of the Government’s 2001 policy initiative Backing Australia’s Ability – An Innovation Plan for the Future, was on the education and training system, especially universities. Universities will receive a total of nearly $1.5 billion ($1.3 billion for research and research training) of the $2.9 billion over five years provided in the package. Universities will also benefit from other measures, such as the continuation of the Research and Development Start programme and the 175 per cent research and development tax concession, that will attract private sources of funding to research.

Funding of $337m (in 2001 dollars) is to be provided over five years for project-specific research infrastructure for universities. This will provide for project-related infrastructure costs associated with Australian competitive research grants. The first year of project specific research infrastructure has been allocated to institutions (though the existing Research Infrastructure Block Grants Scheme) and has been paid from the beginning of 2002.

Funding of $246m (in 2001 dollars) over five years was provided to upgrade universities’ systemic or underpinning infrastructure in order to support world-class research and research training at Australian universities. Over $22.5 million has been allocated in 2002, with more than $55 million over three years, for 22 initiatives selected in a competitive first round of funding. The initiatives will benefit all States and Territories across a diverse range of areas, including broadband connectivity, libraries, laboratories and databases. Funding in 2003 will be spent on the priority areas of bandwidth, library and related information infrastructure needs. Funding has also been set aside to continue Australia’s involvement in the IMS Global Consortium which is developing international interoperability standards for educational software.

Some of the Backing Australia’s Ability measures are more relevant to Outcome 2 and are reported on in Chapter 5. Additional information is also provided in Chapter 7.

National Principles for Intellectual Property Management

A further initiative from Backing Australia’s Ability was the development of National Principles for Intellectual Property Management for Publicly Funded Research to help universities and other public research agencies improve their commercialisation of research and intellectual property management. The National Principles were released in September 2001 after extensive consultations with the higher education sector and other stakeholders.

Implementation of Knowledge and Innovation

The Government’s new funding arrangements for higher education research were announced in the 1999 Knowledge and Innovation: A policy statement on research and research training. Implementation continued during 2001 and 2002.

The new streamlined system of funding is designed to encourage institutions to be more flexible and responsive in developing a strategic portfolio of research activities and research training programmes, and to secure the benefits derived from the achievements of individual researchers and teams.

The new system involves a performance based system for block funding of university research and research training activities administered by the department and peer-reviewed competitive grants administered by various research granting agencies, including the Australian Research Council, operating within the Education, Science and Training portfolio, and the National Health and Medical Research Council within the Health and Ageing portfolio.

Research and Research Training Management Reports

As part of the improved accountability arrangements announced in Knowledge and Innovation, universities have been required to provide Research and Research Training Management Reports as part of their profiles documentation since 2000. Recent amendments to the Higher Education Funding Act 1988 make approval of grants under the block research funding schemes contingent on universities having approved Research and Research Training Management Reports in place.

The 2002 guidelines require institutions to report on performance and demonstrate improvement in managing intellectual property and the process of commercialising research. The 2002 Research and Research Training Management Reports will be published.

Return to top

Performance information for Strategic Priority One

• Over time, there will be an overall improvement of research student completion rates, student satisfaction with their research training experience and research student employment destinations.

For detailed performance information on research student completion rates, see Section 4 of Chapter 3.

The percentage of postgraduate students who were ‘overall satisfied’ with their research training experience increased from 83.4 per cent in 1999 to an estimated 84.8 per cent in 2000 (Graduate Careers Council of Australia Destination Survey 2000).

Table 18: Research student employment destinations (per cent), 1999 – 2000.

Source: Graduate Careers Council of Australia Destination Survey 2000.

Return to top

Priority Two – Further the internationalisation of Australian education and training

The Government is taking a leadership role in a collaborative effort with all stakeholders to learn from and share Australia’s expertise with the rest of the world. This effort is essential for Australian education and training to be recognised as world’s best practice.

Consistent with the Government’s overarching foreign and trade agenda, our international strategies in the education and training arena aim to achieve:

To further these aims we maintain a network of Australian Education Counsellors in key Asian markets and with the OECD and UNESCO in Europe.

Australian Education International

During 2001-02 the department completed a major review of Australian Education International, an arm of the department that undertakes generic promotion abroad on behalf of the Australian education and training industry. The Government’s decision to establish Australian Education International in 1998 required the Minister to review its operations after three years to assess its performance and the impact of market developments.

The review examined Australian Education International’s environment, sought views about the effectiveness of its operations and made recommendations about ways in which it can further promote Australian education and training. The Review recognised that the market for Australian education and training exports has developed strongly over recent years and concluded that Australian Education International has contributed to this growth. There is broad support for Australian Education International’s role in lifting the international profile of Australia as a study destination for international students and of the quality of Australian education. The Review identified a key strength in the Australian model for supporting education exports was the close link to our government-level representation overseas. Industry support for an organisation like Australian Education International was recognised, and a number of areas that could be enhanced were identified to ensure better outcomes from the Government’s support for industry. The department has accepted and begun the implementation of the recommendations arising from the Review.

The most comprehensive international education and training branding research to be undertaken by Australia has now been completed. It included focus groups in eleven countries and an electronic survey of students from more than 20 countries. Creative interpretation of the research is now underway. The new brand will help build Australia’s profile internationally and attract more students to study in Australia.

Return to top

Performance information for Strategic Priority Two

• Baseline data for overseas student numbers and expenditure

We can measure a tangible benefit to the Australian economy by increased numbers of overseas students studying at Australian institutions and a commensurate increase in their financial contribution to Australia. Benefits come directly from fees to institutions and indirectly from the purchase of goods and services such as accommodation. The overall upward trend of the recent years has continued for both expenditure by overseas students in Australia and total overseas student numbers in Australia. This is shown in Tables 19 and 20.

Table 19: Expenditure by overseas students in Australia 1994 to 2000. 

Source: DEST Overseas Student Statistics, 2000.

Note: These estimates are consistent with education related travel service credits shown in Australia's balance of payments compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Income from operations offshore is shown elsewhere in the balance of payments. The 1999 data has been revised to reflect new sector definitions, while data for earlier years has not. Expenditure data by sector is not available between 1994 and 1998. The break in series between 1998 and 1999 should be taken into account when comparing total student expenditure between years.

The total number of international students enrolled with Australian education providers (both in Australia and in Australian higher education courses delivered in other countries) rose by 16 per cent from 162 865 in 1999 to a new high of 188 277 in 2000. It is estimated that enrolments grew further to over 205 000 in 2001 (excluding students not currently within the scope of the time series statistics reported in Table 20, below). Taking into account also an estimate of short stay English language students, the number of students in 2001 would have been more than 240 000. The strong growth in overseas student numbers during 2001 is largely due to increases in the number of students undertaking courses in Australian universities, both onshore and offshore.

Table 20: Overseas student numbers, 1994 to 2000.

Note: The data was revised back to 1994 to reflect improvements to methodology, primarily the allocation of students to educational sectors on the basis of the type of course they study rather than the type of educational provider. The data refers to enrolments with Australian providers, both in Australia and overseas. The scope for the department’s Overseas Student Statistics is a full calendar year count. This differs from Selected Higher Education Statistics that are based on a point in time methodology.
Source: DEST Overseas Student Statistics, 2000.

Return to top

Some additional indicators of performance for Strategic Priority Two

Education exports are Australia’s third largest services export, with an estimated contribution to the Australian economy together with earnings from offshore operations of some $4.25 billion for 2001 (excluding activities not yet reliably estimated). A nationally coordinated and strategically focused approach helps to build Australia’s share of the international student market.

Table 21: Overseas students by sector, 1999-2001.

* nca – not currently available
Source: Departmental Statistics.

Data on overseas students by sector shows total enrolments of overseas students. (See Table 21). The number of new enrolments for the year is reflected in the number of visa grants. (See Table 22). This data also shows some country trends.

Chart 5: Overseas students by onshore/offshore status, 1994-2001.

Note: 2001 figures represent a preliminary estimate.
Source: Departmental Statistics.

Table 22: Offshore Student Visa Grants by Country, 1999 to 2001.

* Note: Does not include visas granted onshore, which in the case of South Korea has been significant.
Source: Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.

Visa data indicates that there was strong growth in most of Australia’s major markets in 2001 (Table 22). This was particularly evident in the markets of China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia and the United States. For the first time, China was Australia’s largest source of new international students, followed by the United States and Hong Kong. The numbers of new students from India continued to decline, as did the number of students coming from Vietnam. The flow of new students from Indonesia improved by 13.5 per cent from 2000 to 2001 following a significant decline in 1999.

The portfolio is an active member of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Forum for East Asia - Latin American Cooperation. The department works to develop and strengthen direct country-to-country relations, especially with our major trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region.

Success in international relations is very hard to quantify but partner countries frequently take the initiative in proposing collaboration with Australia. Their continuing participation and willingness to engage with us tells us that we have been successful.

Return to top

North Asia

China and Hong Kong. Australia-China cooperation in education and training continued to strengthen in the thirtieth anniversary year of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The department contributed to the success of a high level visit to China by Prime Minister Howard in June 2002. Briefings were also provided to a number of delegations from China.

Negotiations commenced for the renewal of the bilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Training and Education Cooperation and arrangements are underway for re-signing in late 2002. The department provided seed funding to enhance China’s participation in Regional University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific staff and student exchanges.

Taiwan. The department funded the Australia Taiwan Higher Education Conference, entitled Quality Assurance and the Pursuit of Excellence, held in Adelaide in April 2002. The conference was well attended by Australian Vice-Chancellors and Taiwanese University Presidents as well as Nobel Laureate, Dr Lee Yuan-tse.

The conference provided participants with a greater awareness and understanding of higher education in each country, particularly the Australian models of governance and administration in universities. It also identified practical ways to take the Australia-Taiwan relationship in higher education forward. In addition, the conference provided an opportunity to showcase the Australian higher education sector to key decision makers in Taiwan and to impress upon them the internationally competitive standards of Australian higher education.

The relationship was strengthened in the vocational education and training sector through a senior departmental staff member’s visit to Taiwan for discussions with the Ministry of Education and the Council of Labor Affairs. The officer also made the keynote speech at the conference on vocational education and training School-based Curriculum Development in Taipei.

Japan. Australia and Japan continued to enjoy a strong and cooperative education relationship. The Prime Minister of Japan, His Excellency Junichiro Koizumi, visited Australia from late April to early May 2002. Prime Ministers Howard and Koizumi expressed support for the Australia-Japan Higher Education Forum, which took place in May 2002. They also agreed to explore ways to enhance the teaching of the Japanese language in Australia.

The Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan, Mr Motoyuki Ono, visited Australia in May 2002. During his visit, Vice-Minister Ono met with his counterpart, Dr Peter Shergold, the Secretary of the department as well as senior department officials. They exchanged views on areas of mutual interest and explored opportunities for future cooperation.

The inaugural Japan-Australia Higher Education Forum, held in Tokyo in May 2002, brought together the leaders of Australian and Japanese universities to examine areas for cooperation and collaboration. The forum was the first major meeting of Australian Vice-Chancellors and Japanese University Presidents, and included high-level Government and academic representatives from Australia and Japan. A second Forum will be held in Australia in 2004.

Korea. The education relationship between Australia and Korea was strengthened during 2001-02 with two high level visits to Australia by Korean delegations.

In December 2001 a delegation from the Korean Presidential Commission on Education and Human Resource Policy visited Australia to obtain an overview of Australia's vocational education and training system.

A delegation from the Education Committee of the National Assembly (the South Korean national legislature) visited Australia in January 2002 to learn more about the Australian schools and vocational education and training systems. The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson, MP, Minister for Education, Science and Training, met with delegation members during their visit.

Return to top

The Americas

The United States of America. One of the strongest aspects of Australia’s bilateral education relationship with the United States is the Fulbright Programme. It provides annual scholarship awards for around twenty students from each country to study in the United States or in Australia. Australia supports this programme through its annual funding grant to the Australian-American Fulbright Commission.

The Government provides strong support to the Programme through the active engagement of the department with the Commission, and through assistance provided by Australia’s missions in the United States. The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP, Minister for Education, Science and Training and the Hon Peter McGauran MP, Minister for Science both attended functions for Fulbright award recipients during 2002.

Colombia. Negotiations between Australia and Colombia on a Memorandum of Understanding on education and training continued in 2001-02. It is expected to be in effect by the second half of 2002. The agreement will facilitate relations between the two countries in the area of education and training, and will provide a framework for cooperation between their respective educational institutions.

Europe

Ministerial meetings were held with a number of high level European Ministers and delegations including the Bulgarian Minister of Education and Science, the Turkish Minister for State with responsibility for Turks abroad and Cyprus, and a delegation of German Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors. The meetings were to build working relationships, share information and explore opportunities for collaboration.

Australia hosted a study tour of German vocational education and training specialists and contributed funding to the Australian Studies Centre in Germany. The Centre was re-established in Berlin in September 2001, after operating out of the University of Potsdam for a number of years.

The European Union. Australia’s education and training relations with the European Union reached a new level during 2001-02, with the announcement in April 2002 of the Australia-European Union Pilot Project on Higher Education Cooperation. The pilot project will involve one or two projects for graduate (masters) student mobility and/or staff mobility, with the student exchange component involving between 25 and 40 students from each side for a period of one semester to one year. Participating institutions will arrange for credit transfer – either through a joint masters degree or, alternatively, through study credits of the programme spent abroad recognised by the home institution as an integral part of its study programme. Students studying abroad will pay tuition fees at their home institution and will incur no additional payment liabilities to the host institution abroad.

Funding of $A500 000 has been committed by the Australian Government over a three-year period, matching the European Union commitment of 295 000 euros. The pilot project has the potential to serve as a model for future substantive and long-lasting structural cooperation in higher education between the Union and Australia.

Return to top

South East Asia

Australia’s education and training relationship with the countries of South East Asia was strengthened during the year.

A twelve-month Information and Communications Technology teacher education project in Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia is currently underway. The project is a result of government-to-government collaboration between the department and the South East Asia Ministers for Education Organisation member countries. The project will investigate the current situation of pre-service teacher training and teacher professional development in the use of Information and Communications Technology in teaching mathematics and science. Two models are to be developed, one for pre-service teacher training and the other for teacher professional development.

Indonesia. A number of joint activities with the Indonesian Ministry of Education have been approved for commencement. They include:

Work continued on reform of the Indonesian curriculum and assessment system.

Malaysia. A Joint Working Group meeting held in Malaysia with the Malaysian Ministry of Education in June 2002 resulted in agreement on a range of cooperative initiatives that will be implemented in the coming year. A Supplementary Framework Agreement on the Recognition of Qualifications between Australia and Malaysia was signed at the meeting. The Agreement was revised to take account of developments within the Malaysian education system since the original Agreement was signed in 1998.

A meeting was held with the Council of Trust for Malay and Indigenous Peoples in Canberra to discuss Australia’s education and training policies and system. The Council oversees the development and implementation of policies and programmes that assist Bumiputra Malays and other Indigenous peoples to gain better education and work opportunities. It is one of the two main agencies that sponsor Malay students to study abroad.

The department hosted a visit by ten Malaysian officials to discuss Australia’s quality assurance policies and procedures with key higher education stakeholders. The Malaysian Minister for Education, Tan Sri Musa, visited Australia in August 2001 as a guest of the Australian Government. The purpose of his visit was to promote cooperation with Australia in education and training. His interests in Australia included Australian colleges catering for low-achieving students, education technology and multimedia, and quality assurance processes for Australian universities.

Thailand. Joint Working Group meetings with the Thai Ministry of University Affairs and the Thai Ministry of Education have assisted Thai efforts to corporatise public universities. Cooperative activities with the Thai Ministry of Education focussed on supporting Thailand’s move towards decentralisation of school education and the reform of their vocational education and training sector towards a demand/industry driven system modelled on the Australian system.

East Timor. The department continued its role as coordinator of the East Timor Reference Group, by providing a point of contact with AusAID for education assistance from the Commonwealth, States and Territories to East Timor. Students from East Timor commenced their academic studies at Australian universities in 2002 under the Eduka Scholarship Programme. This programme is a collaborative initiative supported by the department, AusAID and the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee.

Return to top

Multilateral, bilateral and regional forums

The portfolio is a participant in a number of international organisations concerned with education including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Forum for East Asia-Latin American Cooperation (FEALAC) and the Commonwealth Secretariat. As a participant in these organisations, the department seeks to build relationships and take advantage of opportunities to exchange information on best practices and innovative ideas.

The department was involved in two high-level UNESCO visits in 2001-02. Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, undertook his first official visit to Australia in May. Mr Matsuura met with the Secretary of the department and attended a roundtable of senior officials drawn from a number of government agencies. The Minister attended a dinner held in honour of Mr Matsuura.

Sir John Daniel, the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, visited Australia in June and met with both the Minister for Education, Science and Training and the Minister for Science, as well as senior departmental officials. The visit provided an opportunity to reaffirm Australia’s support for UNESCO’s mandate and mission and to highlight to UNESCO, as a large multilateral organisation, Australia’s policy experience and expertise on a range of issues, including education and science.

The department actively participates in the regional forum University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP). Australia is chair of UMAP for 2001 and 2002. The department is assisting the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee to manage this role. As chair, Australia will host the tenth meeting of the UMAP Reference Group in October 2002. The department successfully implemented the 2002 round of the Australian UMAP programme, whereby 79 projects from 26 Australian higher education institutions received funding of $1.4 million. This funding enabled 348 Australian students from a wide variety of disciplines to undertake study at counterpart higher education institutions in countries in the Asia-Pacific region. These countries included China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and the USA. The department assists the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee to coordinate Australian participation in the University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific Credit Transfer Scheme. The Scheme facilitates greater student mobility in the region by providing a framework for establishing credit transfer arrangement.

The National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition (NOOSR) is Australia’s national body on overseas skills assessments and recognition. NOOSR facilitates the recognition of overseas qualifications in Australia and Australian qualifications overseas. Under the Migration Act, it is responsible for the approval of assessing authorities for the government’s Skilled Migration Programme.

Since the early 1990s, NOOSR has progressively devolved the assessment of overseas qualifications to relevant professional and regulatory authorities, and to State and Territory government overseas qualifications units. This devolution was substantially completed during 2001-02. NOOSR approved two new assessing authorities. It also continued monitoring recognition pathways to ensure fair, equitable, transparent and accessible systems for assessing professional overseas qualifications in Australia.

Guidelines were finalised for assessing the comparability of overseas qualifications for Bangladesh, China, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Professional development seminars were held in six capital cities in 2001-02 and were attended by some 500 participants.

NOOSR received some 10 850 requests for advice. The top source countries for these inquiries were India, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, China, Philippines, United States, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and Sri Lanka.

Through its activities, NOOSR supported nearly 30 000 assessments by professional and regulatory authorities, some 8000 assessments by Overseas Qualification Units and the admission of overseas students to Australian universities. NOOSR also assesses qualifications of teachers who wish to migrate to Australia. In total, NOOSR received nearly 3700 qualifications for assessment from teachers in the United Kingdom, India, South Africa, Australia, Philippines, China, Fiji, Singapore, the United States and Sri Lanka.

NOOSR provides assistance under the Bridging Programme to overseas trained Australian residents. Designed to help overseas trained Australians meet or prepare to meet recognition requirements in certain occupations, total expenditure under the Bridging Programme in 2001-02 was $2.675m. The programme has two components:

On 1 July 2002 the Government introduced the Bridging for Overseas-Trained Professionals Loan Scheme. It provides income contingent loans for eligible, overseas trained professionals. This programme addresses issues of equity, access and opportunity associated with bridging training.

Australia continues to promote the international recognition of Australian qualifications and greater mobility of Australian-trained professionals in our region. Australia led the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Engineer project. The APEC Engineer was successfully launched in November 2000 and Australia is now leading the successor project, the APEC Architect. The first APEC Architect Steering Committee meeting was held in Sydney in June 2002, and was attended by delegations from 10 APEC economies. At that meeting the Steering Committee began the task of defining the criteria for membership of the APEC Architect registers.

Australia tabled the Lisbon Recognition Convention for Ratification before both Houses of Parliament on 12 March 2002. Ratifying the convention will facilitate arrangements for the international recognition of qualifications, particularly in the European region. This will, in turn, support the international mobility of students within more comparable higher education systems in the Lisbon Convention signatory countries.

The department continued to provide support for selected projects to improve the international recognition of Australian professional and educational qualifications through its Professional Services Development Programme (formerly the Industry Development Programme).

The provision of education and training services to overseas students in Australia is regulated by the department through the administration of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act), Education Services for Overseas Students Regulations 2001 (ESOS Regulations) and National Code of Practice for Registration Authorities and Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students (National Code).

The purpose of the legislation is to protect the interests of people coming to Australia on student visas. It achieves this by providing tuition and financial assurance and by ensuring a nationally consistent approach to provider registration. The legislation also seeks to ensure the integrity of the industry through visa-related reporting requirements.

Failure to comply with the requirements of the ESOS Act may lead to the imposition of sanctions, including suspension or cancellation of a provider’s registration. In the period 2001-02, the department suspended 33 providers for failure to pay their 2001 contribution to the ESOS Assurance Fund. It also imposed sanctions on eight providers for breaches of the ESOS Act including two conditions, four suspensions and two cancellations.

Future factors that will influence the performance of Australia’s education and training export industry

The department is addressing a number of factors that are likely to affect the Australian education export industry in the future. These include:

Return to top

Section 3 - other activities that broadly support Outcome 3

The department engages in other activities that are also important to the achievement of Outcome 3. They are reported on here.

Research and Evaluation

During 2001-02, as noted in Section 2 above, the department completed a major review of Australian Education International, an arm of the department that undertakes generic promotion abroad on behalf of the Australian education and training industry.

The department also commissioned research into cross-disciplinary research activity and needs and directions in research training, particularly doctoral education. The cross-disciplinary study found that the majority of researchers in the areas chosen for study engage in collaborative work. The majority of degrees obtained by researchers were in single, traditional areas with inter-disciplinary training not in evidence. Cross-disciplinary research training is more likely to be acquired through every day work experience rather than formal training.

Doctoral enrolments and demand for doctoral studies are strong and the needs of the knowledge economy and interest in lifelong learning are likely to sustain this trend. The study on research training needs and directions highlighted the need for further study to identify the current nature and purpose of the doctoral curriculum.

Return to top

Section 4 – Summary of the achievements against this Outcome

There have been a wide range of achievements this year. The key ones follow.

A new streamlined system of funding designed to encourage universities to be more flexible and responsive in developing a strategic folio of research activities and research training programmes.

Education is now one of Australia’s fastest growing exports. It contributes more than $4 billion per annum to the economy.

A review has found broad support for Australian Education International’s role in lifting the international profile of Australia as a study destination for international students and of the quality of Australian education.

An agreement between Australia and the European Union to participate in a Pilot Project on Cooperation in Higher Education has been arrived at following many years of negotiations on education cooperation. The project is an important first step to enabling the development of a formal bilateral agreement on education between Australia and the Union.

Education relationships with countries in Southeast Asia have strengthened during the year, with bilateral meetings and a range of joint activities. The meetings and activities have helped to promote a better appreciation and a more positive attitude towards the quality of Australian education and training. Meetings consistently reinforced the message of Australia as a cooperative education partner, concerned with ensuring the quality of education offered to students on-shore and off-shore and maintaining a long-term partnership with the countries of the region.

The regulatory framework for the education and training export industry under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 was fully implemented with the end to the transitional arrangements of the National Code of Practice for Registration Authorities and Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students from 1 January 2002.

The Bridging for Overseas Trained Professionals Loan Scheme, announced in the 2001-02 Budget, came into operation on 1 July 2002. Professional organisations have agreed to be gazetted as authorised assessed authorities against a gazetted list of regulated and semi-regulated professions.

Return to top