International Students: Link between Student Pathways and Enrolment Forecasts
We wrote this blog as a part of assessment in subject BCO6007 Business Analytics at Victoria University, we are fortunate enough to work with influential mentors and thanks to our Lecturer Paul Hawking and Tutor Mohammad Bilal to give us the opportunity to work on SAP Lumira.
First we prepare the Data set on International students coming to Australia then we analyzed the data using SAP Lumira and created a story on Link between Student Pathways and Enrolment Forecasts.
Australia is one of the highly recognized countries for the intake of international students. The country is a host to various scholars flocking to the country seeking quality education. It is the country’s third largest export sector. Australia aims at a 30% increase in international students’ intake by 2020.
It is important to see the international student commencement allotment by dividing it to various parts. This way it is easier to understand the connection between student pathways and enrolment forecasts.
Commencement by Sector
Australia enrolls students into various sectors. It’s acceptance of international students is diverse and all inclusive.
- The VET sector is the largest of all by far. It is 26.38% of all the commencements.
- Next is the ELICOS sector. It encompasses 25.95% of all the country’s commencements.
- The higher education sector is around 38.6% and the government is working to improve it well.
- Non Award sector is at 5.35% and
- Schools’ sector is following it by having a 3.71%
Commencements by Nationality
Australia commences students from the various nations and has a diverse international student community. Students from China and India cover the most part. Chinese students that are commenced in higher education have the highest number, reaching nearly one million (971,234 being the exact number). Chinese students also saw a high presence in the ELICOS even if it was not as high as the ones in higher education. In contrast, Indian students received a very little commencement in both of the higher education and the ELICOS compared to that of the Chinese students.
Comparing and Contrasting Sectors by Year
Australia has been increasing its student intake every year in all sectors. However some sectors have demonstrated a high growth when compared to the remaining other sectors. The non award sector experienced the lowest growth from 2014 through 2015. Schools saw a very slight growth of students through the year. VET is the second largest sector next to Higher Education that is showing a significant growth. Both accept high amount of students every year.
Enrolments by Year
The number of international students in Australia saw a sharp increase in the last three years. Even though it was 3,259,084 in 2013, it raised to 4,028,739 in 2015. It is also a great increase from that of 2014’s which was at 3,628,785. The number grew grew from 2014 through 2015 by 36.9% and it grew from 2013 through 2014 by a percentage of 33.24%
Therefore as we have seen the facts listed above, the pathways of international students in Australia have a very high impact on their enrolement. For example we have learned that students commensed in the VET and ELICOS are wide in number and have a higher annual growth than the other three sectors. The impacat of the pathway is quite clear to be seen.
Even the pathways choosen by different countries were different and the enrolement forecasts would also follow the same pattern by following the finger prints of student pathways.
And when the commencement of a sector increases or decreases annually, the enrolement forecast should also be predicted accordingly. Different sectors have different amount of students in number. So their annual increase or decrease have a serious impact on the enrolement forecast.
Group Members:
Gurmeet Kaur