Australia Universities Head for the Exits

by Ayrea | August 6, 2007 | Newsletters 0 Comments

From the World Education News & Reviews

August 06, 2007
Asia-Pacific Australia After Collapse of Singapore Campus, Australian Universities Head for the Exits The Australian newspaper reports that Australian universities are taking leave of offshore teaching operations en masse in the face of debt and fear of reputational damage. Universities in June confirmed the closure of dozens of programs plagued by quality and cost issues across Asia and the Pacific, involving thousands of students and million-dollar losses. Furthermore, the sector has been rocked by damaging revelations of alleged mismanagement and profligacy in international operations at Macquarie University and the collapse of the University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) stand-alone Singapore venture.

Australia’s 40 universities enroll 200,000 foreign students, of whom approximately 60,000 study in 1,500 offshore programs, mostly campus partnerships in Southeast Asia. Offshore operations have been plagued by quality problems, often blamed by Australian universities on the difficulty of controlling their overseas partners’ standards. Universities typically shut down programs in advance of audits by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA), industry participants interviewed by The Australian said. This trend is expected to quicken as AUQA prepares for its next audit round, which will specifically target international operations.

The course terminations in recent years appear to have been greatest in China, Singapore and Hong Kong.

As declining public funding forces them into greater financial discipline, and private moneymaking operations grow in importance, Australian universities are belatedly realizing that programs which bring in revenue are not necessarily profitable. It takes up to five years to withdraw as the universities fulfill teaching commitments to existing students. In some cases, students have been asked to complete their studies online.

UNSW has cut its offshore operations from a peak of 20 in the late 1990s to just two, a design master’s in Singapore and an engineering undergraduate degree in Vietnam. A withdrawal from teaching programs in Hong Kong and Malaysia will reduce the University of Technology, Sydney’s number of offshore students from 2,500 to about 1,000. Flinders University, now with 13 offshore programs, has withdrawn from crowded markets in Hong Kong and Singapore. Central Queensland University is “teaching out” terminated programs in Fiji, Singapore and Shanghai involving several hundred students. Curtin University of Technology, with one of the Australian sector’s biggest international operations, including nearly 9,000 students overseas, is about to withdraw from three (unidentified) programs. The University of Southern Queensland has cut from 37 programs to 26 and further rationalization is expected. Programs in China, Singapore, Fiji, Sri Lanka and Dubai have all been cut for varying reasons. The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, with 12,000 students offshore, is withdrawing from two small operations including one in Singapore.

- The Australian
June 27, 2007

Republished Article from
http://www.wes.org/ewenr/07july/asiapacific.htm