The number of Vietnamese coming to Australia for study is steadily growing as parents are continuing to spend on their children’s education.

Tran Thu Huong, deputy director of Australian Education International in HCMC, said Vietnamese students at Australian schools of different levels in the first four months of this year grew over 60% year-on-year, taking to more than 14,660 the total number of local students Down Under.

Huong provided local reporters with the figures at a meeting with representatives from Australia’s New South Wales Department of Education and Training (DET) and high schools in HCMC on Tuesday.

The Australian guests are in Vietnam for a week-long trip to promote academic programs and support services for international students.

They will participate in a series of free-entry seminars for Vietnamese students and their parents as well as meetings with education agents and schools in HCMC and Hanoi during their trip to Vietnam.

The seminars focus on providing Vietnamese students and their parents with an insight into various curricula and courses for international students, and the quality of education at high schools in Australia, said Helen Wyatt, principal of Kingsgrove North High School.

Wyatt told the Daily that she and principals of other high schools had received a good initial response and expected that they would reap “a positive outcome” after the trip to promote Australian education in Vietnam.

Huong of the Australian Education International said more than 1,820 Vietnamese students were studying at schools in Australia in end-April. She clarified this number did not include those Vietnamese at vocational education centers, English language colleges, universities and higher education courses.

Yoko Kaitani, marketing officer of New South Wales DET International, put the annual tuition fee at high schools in the Australian state at AU$11,500 (US$8,890) for the seventh to 10th grade classes and AU$12,900 for the eleventh and twelfth-level classes.

Daisy Kokkalis, principal of Ashfield Boys High School, said international graduates of high schools in Australia had a lot of options to study at colleges and universities Down Under, particularly in New South Wales.

Kokkalis said Australian high schools also helped provide the information about the scholarships available for Vietnamese students, who are among top scoring students.

Australia is providing more government scholarships to Vietnamese candidates because their academic ranking was high and excelled in the selection process, according to Australian ambassador to Vietnam Allaster Cox.

Cox said there would be around 175 scholarships for Vietnam this year and the number could be 220 depending on how Vietnamese candidates were able to compete with candidates from other countries in applying for Leadership and Endeavour scholarships.

Cox told the Daily during his trip to HCMC last month that offering more scholarships was one of the ways that Australia followed to support Vietnamese economy, as education was a fundamental for the country’s development.

The ambassador said that Australia and Vietnam could build stronger educational linkages through increasing cooperation and partnerships between educational institutions of the two countries.

Vietnamnet (21/05/2009)