In today’s talking points Australia is new destination for Indians’ higher education, students caught up in education rort may have their course debts wiped, scholars suggest oriental philosophy offers better future for humanity and would reducing international student visas create university places for Australians?
Australia is new destination for Indians’ higher education
Brexit and Trump’s new visa restrictions has deterred many Indian students from seeking postgraduate education in the UK and the US. With this growing trend, Australia has seen an influx of international student enrolments coming from India.
Amit Dasgupta, the India country director at UNSW said, “Brexit and several recent US policies regarding visas have created a series of uncertainties. Naturally, other destinations open up. Australia stands out because the quality of education and student life is great. UNSW is a perfect place to study as the quality is exceptional.”
Enrolments have been seen in a variety of postgraduate degrees, with the increase in undergraduate degrees as well. Law students in Australia are encourage, and at some universities required to gain practical legal experience in legal clinics before they are eligible to graduate. This ensures that graduates are job-ready.
Source: News Today
Students caught up in education rort may have their course debts wiped
In the wake of one of the country’s biggest education rorts, the Liberal government is considering waving the debts of students conned by dodgy private colleges. The move comes after the federal Student Loans Ombudsman reportedly received more than 5000 complaints in nine months from students who claimed they had been ripped off or received substandard training, with the bulk of complaints coming from people who were never told they would incur a debt if they signed up to a course.
While the size of the debts is unclear, over $1 billion worth of taxpayer-funded loans that will never be paid have already be written down by the Commonwealth Actuary.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
China Focus: Scholars suggest oriental philosophy offers better future for humanity
For the first time, the 24th World Congress on Philosophy was held in China this year. The congress hosted more than a hundred experts in the field who held discussions around the theme of “learning to be human”.
A number of philosophers in the congress expressed that eastern philosophical perspective of man being an integral part of the universe is valuable and has applications in our “conflict-ridden” situation today.
From Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, Paul Healy expressed that the dialogue between Eastern and Western philosophical perspectives can provide a deeper understanding of it means to live a good life, while living in a world of globalisation.
Source: Xinhua
Fact check: Would reducing international student visas create university places for Australians?
Katter’s Australian Party senator Fraser Anning sees migration as a “critical problem” facing the nation, and among the solutions proposed in his controversial first speech to Parliament was a big reduction in student visas to create more places for domestic students.
The claim was promptly rebuffed by the Government. Alan Tudge, then minister for citizenship and multicultural affairs, said Senator Anning’s suggestion that international students take university places from Australians was “just factually wrong”.
“If anything they subsidise Australian students,” Mr Tudge said.
In recent years, universities have dramatically scaled up their facilities to capitalise on significant growth in both international and domestic demand for university places.
Senator Anning’s plan to “drastically” cut the number of international student visas would merely erode a crucial revenue stream for universities, without creating extra places for domestic students.
Source: ABC News