By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Fountain Gate tourist business is helping sell the Australian university experience to prospective students from India.
Safir Tours orgainised a national tour for 49 visiting students, including a stop at Federation University in Berwick on 3 October.
Safir Tours chief executive Nayaz Noor said Australia was an attractive option. It was easier for students to get visas, relatively cheap for fees and cost of living, and was known as the “safest place in the world”.
“Australia is a land of immigrants, so it’s easier for international students to fit in.
“The educational level is on par with any part of the world, whether it’s the UK or US.”
The students, from Years 7-12 at Delhi Public School, were typically from India’s middle to upper classes and would tour campuses in US, Europe and Australia before settling on their choice of university.
Their families paid $2700 per student for the one-week excursion.
Co-partner Yasin Sharieff, who runs an Indian travel agency The Modern Classroom, said the tour combined learning with “a lot of fun”.
The students had been also met wildlife at Moonlit Sanctuary as well as visited the Great Barrier Reef, Dreamworld, Bondi Beach, Tobruk sheep station and Sydney Opera House.
They were also whisked around for a one-hour tour and presentation at the Federation University campus.
Uday, 13, said his heart was set on university in Australia. When asked what he liked about the country, he said: “Pretty much everything.”
Tina Bradshaw, marketing officer at Federation University, said the campus was set to take international students into its business, nursing, psychology, IT, engineering and education courses for the first time in 2018.
The university competes for international students not only with other Australian campuses, but institutions in Europe and the US. They are an important sector for every university these days.
“It’s competitive,” Ms Bradshaw said.
“It’s a world market.”
