2015 QS Best Student City rankings: Melbourne on the rise

As the annual rankings season draws to an end, the release of the 2015 QS Best Student Cities rankings has brought great news for Melbourne.  After being ranked fifth in the 2014 ranking, Melbourne has now moved to second position behind Paris and ahead of London, Sydney, Boston and Hong Kong.

 With Melbourne serving as regional Victoria’s international gateway, the increased profile generated by the city has state-wide benefits – a potential picked up on in recent media coverage and on social media.

Study Melbourne Internship Program

IEU is pleased to announce the 13 education partners who are working to deliver the pilot program of the Study Melbourne Internships for up to 300 students into June 2015.  These include:

• Federation University
• University of Melbourne, Department of Computing and Information Systems with Australian Computer Society
• The University of Melbourne
• Victoria University
• Swinburne University of Technology
• La Trobe University
• Deakin University
• Monash University in partnership with Professional Pathways Australia
• RMIT University
• Chisholm Institute in partnership with South East Melbourne Manufacture’s Alliance
• NMIT in partnership with Performance Education
• Box Hill Institute of TAFE and
• Australian Technical and Management College in partnership with Performance Education

Central to the success of this project is a partnership between Victorian Government and VECCI. Cherie Earsman has recently commenced in the role of Project Manager and can be contacted on 03 8662 5261 or cearsman@vecci.org.au.  Partnering with VECCI assists us to not only gain new internship hosts but to also raise the profile of international students in the workplace with Victoria’s leading businesses.

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Study Melbourne is proud to sponsor the ‘Panda-Koala’ High School Student English Competition in Chengdu

In October the Australian Consulate-General in Chengdu officially kicked off the 2014 "Panda Koala" Cup Chengdu High School Students English Speech Contest. Eligible high school students in Chengdu were warmly welcomed to participate, and the winners will receive an all-expenses paid 10-day study trip to Australia.

The competition is jointly organised by the Australian Consulate-General in Chengdu, Chengdu Education Bureau and Chengdu Municipal Foreign Affairs Office. Study Melbourne is a key sponsorship partner. The competition will give Chengdu high school students the opportunity to demonstrate their command of the English language and culture, and to increase their awareness of Australia.

The competition consists of preliminary, semi-final and final stages, and will run from 13 to 29 October. Contestants will go through prepared speeches and impromptu Q&A sessions before their scores are determined by the judging panel. Three lucky winners will be awarded a free roundtrip air ticket and a sponsored study tour to Melbourne.

For more information about initiatives and promotion in Western China contact Terry Wang, Education Services Manager based in Chengdu on terry.wang@dsdbi.vic.gov.au.

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TVET Expo China

In October, Study Melbourne hosted a stand at TVET Expo China 2014 (China International Technical and Vocational Education and Training Exhibition) in Beijing. The business-to-business fair was incorporated into the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics (WFCP) World Congress 2014, where the world’s best minds met in China to explore and share the latest ideas and insights that impacted and shaped the face of TVET sector in China and the rest of the world.

The WFCP World Congress 2014, the world’s key event of workforce education, also came to Asia for the first time in its history, attracting more than 800 delegates from China and overseas.

The synergy created by the two events provided great opportunity for China Education Services Managers to network with colleagues from across the globe, and stimulate more communication around partnership that will support future cooperation.

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India market update

The Government of India will develop a revised skill development policy by March 2015. The new scheme is expected to move beyond the target of skilling 500 million youth by 2020 that was set by the previous Government of India. The Government of India launched an 'International Visiting Professorship' programme under which it will invite 12 leading international science scholars from across the globe to visit the country as 'Visiting Professors' to deliver three talks, one each in a school, a college and a research institution, every year.  Gujarat state Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Siemens India Limited to establish 6 centres of excellence in engineering sciences. 

India Employability Survey

Annie Santhana, Education Services Manager from India shares with us the highlights of the India Employability Survey 2014:

• 51% of companies hire only from the top-20 Indian institutions, and less than a quarter of these firms hire only from the top-10 in any discipline
• From among those who hire foreign graduates, over 60% of companies hire only from the global top-50 universities, of which close to a third hire only from the world’s ten best institutions
• A very-substantial proportion, 41% of all companies have hired at least one foreign-university graduate in the last two years
• Far more graduates from foreign universities (39%) are deemed better prepared for the job, than those from Indian universities and require lesser extensive training (14%)
• Sector-wise, consumer goods (60%), services (52.2%) and infrastructure, telecom and energy (50%) firms are the most likely to have hired at least one candidate with a foreign degree
• Industrial (34.5%) and IT (35.7%) companies are the least likely to have done so, though their overall percentages are still quite high
• 41.6% of firms rank American universities as either their top or their second choice, while 25.8% do so for universities in the UK. Germany is a distant third, with 6.9% of firms ranking it as one of their top two choices.

For more information contact Annie Santhana, Education Services Manager India on annie.santhana@dsdbi.vic.gov.au

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See you again in 2015

As the end of year approaches, this is the final IEU Bulletin for 2014.  We appreciate the support of partners in 2014 and we look forward to continued collaboration in the new year.

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