In today’s Talking Points: Education Technology Start-up secures pre-seed funding for teaching English to Chinese students; UMeWorld unveils China’s first K-12 Online Education Platform; Chinese to warn its students of Australian visa delays and refusals; China’s shift to an increase for services gives rise to supply challenges for Australia.
Education Technology Start-up secures pre-seed funding for teaching English to Chinese students
Melbourne based Education Technology Start-up, Language Your Way, has secured pre-seed funding from local angel investors and venture capitalists to expand its market in China. Launched in 2015, the company has developed and tested its game-based online education platform in China and is currently used in a number of English training schools in Sichuan. The growing acceptance of online learning among parents and the rapid growth of broadband Internet access in China have made it attractive for investment in education technology. Language Your Way a recipient of an Australia-China Council grant and was a finalist at Chengdu Innovate recently and accompanied a delegation to Chengdu aimed at building bilateral trade and innovation exchange between Australia and China. The funding announcement follows the launch in Shanghai earlier this year of the government’s landing pad initiative, part of AUD$1.1billion National Innovation and Science Agenda.
Source: Business Wire
UMeWorld unveils China’s first K-12 Online Education Platform
UMeWorld, one of China’s top online education firms has announced the beta launch of its cloud-based, K-12 education platform, UEXiao™. The platform combines a student information (SIS) management with a learning management (LMS), assessment and data analytics tools. The Ministry of Education has mandated that, by 2020, all students across China must have access to individualized internet-based learning services and all K-12 schools must have access to broadband internet, in-class multi-media devices and systems and a digitally integrated learning environment. The system is intended to optimize investment in hardware which has outpaced software capability in the move to meet these new targets. UEXiao’s core features will be available free of charge, including more than 45 core SIS/LMS functions.
Source: Yahoo News
Chinese to warn its students of Australian visa delays and refusals
Deputy director of the Chinese Scholarship Council has indicated that they are looking to advise Chinese students and researchers visiting Australia to avoid doing so due to extensive delays in processing visas. The delays and increased rejections have come about since the introduction of a new ‘simplified’ visa processing system which was introduced in July this year. Applications that normally take no more than two months have reportedly taken more than nine months. The delays have considerably impacted on the reputation and revenue of Australian universities.
Source: The Australian
China’s shift to an increase for services gives rise to supply challenges for Australia
With a shift from an investment heavy economy to one dominated by domestic consumption and services, Australia could see up to 25% of its services exports going to China. China now has the world’s largest adult middle class at an estimated 109 million. Even a moderate increase in consumption for Australian goods and services would heavily influence the Australian market. Just a 2 percent increase in Chinese demand for Australian education services has the potential to create an additional 3260 jobs in the education sector alone.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald