AUSTRALIA is running a booming trade surplus on education with the largest net student number among the global education industry's major players.

Dr Daniel Edwards, a senior research fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research, measured the ratio of international students hosted by 109 countries to their nationals going overseas to study.

He found only Macao had a higher net flow and that Australia led the seven nations hosting 100,000 plus students. IN 2009 with 260,000 tertiary education internationals Australia’s net flow ratio was 20 per cent, well ahead of other major providers notably the UK (15 per cent).

While the US hosts by far the largest number of international students, around 650,000, the sheer size of its system reduces the net flow ratio to a bare 2 per cent.

Nations running a net flow deficit include two of Australia’s major customers China and Malaysia as well as two troubled European economies, Greece and Ireland.

According to Dr Edwards, the positive spin on the net inflow is Australians are so convinced of the quality of their own universities they do not aspire to an alternative.

Unless, he adds, “staying at home is our default position.”

“There’s an argument to make about our insular tendencies but the net flow shows how important international education is to the sector.”

However he warns our traditional strengths: a high quality system, a (previously) low dollar and a great location will not always insulate us from emerging providers on our patch – including Malaysia and especially China.

Beijing’s plan to expand its education exports is building on a sold base with China already (just) in the industry’s global top ten

Even English is not the overwhelming advantage it was. Dr Edwards points out China and South Korea both send more students to Japan than Australia.

But we still lead the world for North Korean students, with more studying here than in the next four nations.

While Dr Edwards argues it is up to individual institutions to mange their own marketing as competition intensifies, “a national strategy would not hurt.”

We’ve got to keep a global perspective in mind,” he says. 

Dr Edwards research appears in the ACER’s Joining the Dots (1) 18