Dr Peter Kell from the Hong Kong Institute of Education said in Campus Review last week that all this is a bad advertisement for "Brand Australia" and says many private and public providers are ill-equipped and inexperienced to deliver international education.
I would argue against such broad statements and ask why the link between how we market Australia as a tourist destination and how we market Australia as a study destination has not, so far as I can see, yet been made.
What seems unfair, for international students and quality VET providers, is that somehow the news that public providers, such as TAFE (that provide education that meets the Australian Quality Training Framework), who deliver guaranteed high quality vocational training doesn't reach the overseas students...? Perhaps they are simply lured by cheaper and faster qualifications and if so, is it appropriate to tarnish the rest with the ails of the few?
I guess any effort to repair a damaged reputation is a job for a clever brand strategist - maybe even an issues management practitioner - and believe me if I could come up with the answer I'd provide a two-for-one solution to Australia's global tourism and international education reputation and cash in the 20 million myself.
You raise some good questions. It will be interesting to see if the department of Education hires a branding strategist to try to improve their reputation. I don't know that the negative press has been that widespread as we didnt hear about it much in Canada and it certainly wouldn't have impacted my decision to come here. It is true that often a small group of people or organisations will ruin the reputation of the rest, but this is often how the media operates, if they find a sensational story they look for any other examples or angles they can find.
ReplyDeletePersonally, when deciding to complete my Master's degree, traveling internationally was my only option, as it is not offered in Canada. However, in reference to the section stating, "Perhaps they are simply lured by faster qualifications..." I feel this information, relating to me personally, couldn't be further from the truth.
ReplyDeleteWhat Australians don't realize is that us Canadians have completed an extra year of communications/public relations post graduate education prior to coming into this Master's program. We had to complete a 4 year undergraduate degree and then attended a post graduate corporate communications program for 2 semesters, in which we had to complete 15 courses (7 our first semester and 8 our second semester). We now have to complete another 4 courses for the Master's degree.
While we only need to complete one semester of the Master's program, we will have completed a total of 19 courses in post graduate communications, while Australians (as long as they have an undergraduate degree) can complete the entire Master's degree in 8 courses!
The year of post graduate education we completed in Canada was a stepping stone which was able to get us into this Master's program, without which it wouldn't have been possible. Throughout those 15 courses, we put a lot of time, effort and hard work into our studies in order to get accepted into the UWS Master of Professional Communication program.
I just don't want anyone thinking we are here because it's faster because that statement, for me personally and my fellow Canadians, is not true!