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Applying to study overseas can be a long and daunting process, and students can be put off by various elements of the process along the way. Here, Careers Counsellor Mark Colsey explains what puts off his students in Australia from studying overseas, and how this can be addressed
Unlike the experience in European, North American systems, Australian students tend to stay home for their undergraduate tertiary study and instead consider sandwich years, study abroad semesters or postgraduate studies abroad.
My school is a leading independent boys school in Adelaide, South Australia and I can draw some conclusions from the intentions and destinations of our students. Established in 1847, St Peter’s College is the oldest independent school in South Australia. Apart from an extensive co-curricular program, the school prides itself on the academic performance of the students. While I have no specific data on the destinations of school graduates nationwide, every year in excess of 95% of our 150 to 170 Year 12 graduates progress to university level study. Each year, only around 10% of our graduates study in another State of Australia and just one or two students opt to study internationally. Why is this? Having monitored the destinations of our Year 12 graduates each year for the last 14 years, I have been able to assess some of the reasons for our graduating Year 12 students remaining in Australia.
Putting the living costs aside, the tuition expenses for international study are discouraging our students to study overseas. All but a few universities in Australia are public universities and consequently receive significant funding from the Australian and State governments. Traditionally, governments in Australian have sought to make tertiary level study available to any Australian citizen who has the interest and ability. Equality is paramount – students should not be denied access to university study due to financial constraints. The Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) operates in Australia. All domestic tertiary students are expected to make a financial contribution towards the cost of their undergraduate tertiary study with the Australian Government contributing, by far, the greater proportion. For most students, they are unable to pay their contribution while studying. Consequently the HECS system allows these students to go into debt. This debt is subsequently paid back via instalments once they have commenced employment and their income goes above a minimum threshold. The HECS system allows students to undertake and complete their tertiary level for very little up-front cost. For our domestic students to study internationally without some degree of financial assistance is a very costly exercise especially as most tuition fees at international institutions require payment up front. Even students residing in Australia and with dual Australian and European citizenship do not appear to qualify for ‘discounted’ tertiary education in Europe. This is a massive impediment for our students to study overseas – most families will struggle to financially support their study despite their acknowledgement of the benefits - particularly when the alternative Australian tertiary education sector offerings is of a high quality and relatively low cost.
The selection processes for domestic students is pretty straightforward. For the great majority of available courses, selection into a tertiary level course is based on the applicant’s Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR). The exceptions to this rule tend to be the Medicine, Dentistry and Performing/Visual Arts type courses where other criteria are also considered. Although each State of Australia has its own senior secondary curriculum, all States apart from Queensland, generate an ATAR for each eligible graduating Year 12 student and this ATAR, regardless of what State authority is calculating it, is accepted throughout Australia and facilitates the students moving away from their home state to study. The ATAR is a percentile ranking based on the Year 12 results. In principle, the top performing 0.05% group of graduates receive an ATAR of 99.95, the next 0.05% group of graduates receive an ATAR of 99.9 and so on. The higher the ATAR, the greater the chance of an applicant being offered a place on a course. The application processes in each State are carried out online and for the great majority of courses, just require some personal details and the applicant’s course preferences. No personal statements are required. No school reports/transcripts are required. No references are required. No interviews are required. No special tests are required. The simplicity of the Australian application system is an incentive for the graduating students to apply. On many occasions, students commence the process of applying for study in Europe or North America, only to defer these plans when confronted with all the extra requirements and elongated northern hemisphere application timelines.
The delayed start to international study is another consideration. In Australia, Year 12 students finish in November and most Australian university courses commence at the end of February or beginning of March in the following year - a break of over 3 months before the students recommence their study. If Australian students intend to undertake tertiary study in the northern hemisphere, the break from formal study would be in excess of 9 months. This is great for students who want time off to travel and work, but this group is in the minority. For students who intend to progress straight to tertiary study, this break is a disincentive particularly as their contemporaries do progress to the next stage of their study.
The quality of Australian tertiary education is very high. The students do not see the benefits of studying overseas at the undergraduate level, especially when the high demand courses such as Medicine, Law etc, are only available as post graduate courses in many Northern Hemisphere tertiary institutions. The bulk of Year 12 graduates from our school go to vocational based degrees – engineering, medicine, law, accounting, architecture, psychology - so the generalist degree options of arts, science and business are not as popular, yet maybe the most popular and easily accessed offerings for them at overseas institutions.
My observations are that there is a growing trend for former students to complete an undergraduate degree in Australia and then consider
postgraduate/specialist study overseas. Indeed, many former students will contact the school for recommendations and support for their overseas postgraduate study plans. What is definitely growing in popularity is the semester or year off exchange/study abroad options offered by most tertiary institutions in Australia. These options provide students with an opportunity to experience study in an overseas institution and the study will still contribute to the completion of the Australian degree. A benefit of these study abroad programs is that apart from travel and living away from home costs, there are no additional tuition costs. There is evidence to suggest a significant proportion of the students who undertake an exchange will consequently apply for postgraduate study in the same country. It is as if they like to get a taste for it before committing to studying full time overseas. Even most of our Year 10 students who are selected to go on exchange to overseas schools for a term, return to the school very keen to revisit to the host country at some time in the future to study or travel. It seems that younger Australian students need to be convinced of the benefits of a possible overseas experience before taking the step to study overseas and exchanges appear to be providing the necessary inducement or prompt for this to occur.
In my view, Australian students lack knowledge on overseas study institutions, other than the most prominent institutions which are likewise the most difficult to enter. This is an area that we can attempt to address in schools and organisations such as i-studentadvisor are very useful in this process of broadening the student’s perspective on the range of institutions/courses available and other requirements.
Written by Mark Colsey (2011)
Careers Counsellor
St Peter’s College (Australia)
