28 January 2011
In December 2010 AEI China offices translated two media releases of Minister for Tertiary Education, Senator Chris Evans, namely International students positive about Australian education and Government takes next steps in international education reforms into Chinese and distributed the bilingual versions of these two media releases to local media, education agents, providers’ representatives and key Chinese government education contacts including Chinese Ministry of Education (MoE).
The two media releases were distributed to 175 local media, 280 education agents, 25 representatives of Australian education providers and also 38 government education contacts in China.
As a result of efforts from AEI China put into translating and distributing the documents, there have been published several hundred media articles and thousands of blogs, articles by agents, including mainstream media, i.e. Sina, Sohu, QQ, Tigtag, Chinanews, etc. Most of the media reports tracked have quoted the media releases provided by the AEI offices, with the titles of ‘International student positive about Australian education’, ‘2010 Australia international student survey’, ‘Australian Education is recognised by international students’, ‘Australian Government takes next steps in international education reforms’, “Australian Government to strengthen the legislation to better protect international students’, etc.
Some media have added comments while quoted the Embassy’s media releases. Some of the comments were: Australia is the first country to introduce ESOS by law to protect the rights and interests of international students, the Australian Government announced International Students Strategy for Australia in October 2010 in the aim of better protection of the wellbeing of international students and improvement of the quality of their educational experience. Australia has a well-established legislation system to protect international students. China has been the first resource country of international students for Australia for many years. In the last twelve months, we have seen the downturn of Australian market due to the appreciation of the Australian dollar, closures of Australian private providers, the rising tuition of Australian universities and growing competition from the US, UK and Canada for international students. 2010 AEI International Student Survey shows that international students are positive about Australian education, the release of this survey will help the students and their parents to enhance their confidence in studying in Australia, particularly for those who are pendulous between Australia and other countries. The positive feedback and the word-of-mouth from current international students in Australia would be an effective means to convince the potential students to consider studying in Australia. The media releases of delivered a positive message that Australia welcomes international students and Australia will continues to offer a world class quality education.
The feedbacks from agents are also positive. A few local agents told AEI Beijing that they added the information of “Study Survey” and “ESOS Review” into student seminars. They wanted to hear more positive news about SIA to stimulate the Australian market in China. They also expressed the interests to work with the Embassy to promote Australian market. Some agents are concerned that, along with the process of ESOS Review, the possibility of more closures of private providers might bring negative impacts to China market.
Media releases AEI China offices sent out and some links to media’s reports are as below:
1. International student positive about Australian education (Senator Chris Evans’ media 6elease)
Date of release: 17 December 2010
2010 AEI International Student Survey (Key message and background)
Date of release: 17 December 2010
162 Chinese media reports found, other 1900 comments of blogs, articles by agents and other organisations and comments on bbs on this topic.
Some links of media report:
2. Government takes next steps in international education reforms
Date of release: 21 Dec 2010
142 Chinese media reports found and other 1600 comments of blogs, articles by agents and other organisations and comments on bbs on this topic.
Some links of media report: