University student finances in 2012 - A study of the financial circumstances of domestic and international students in Australia’s universities
9. The financial circumstances of International students
The inclusion of international students in the Universities Australia Student Finances Survey for the first time in 2012 helps to provide a more comprehensive view of the circumstances of the full range of students in Australian universities. A caveat, however: we report on international students and their views and experiences of education in Australia as a single cohort, for our focus is at the national (Australian) level. In reality of course, international students are not an homogenous group. Students’ financial experiences of study in Australia are dependent upon on their country of origin (Table 9.1), the source of their funding for study (for example, whether their scholarships or other support are in home country currency or Australian based) and the rates of exchange between their home country and Australia, quite apart from their familial or personal financial wellbeing. That said, some overall conclusions can be drawn:
- International undergraduates have slightly higher incomes than their domestic counterparts. The mean annual income for international undergraduates is some five per cent higher than that of domestic undergraduates. Postgraduate coursework students’ and higher degree research students’ reported mean annual income, however, is lower than that of domestic students – by 11.4 per cent in the case of postgraduate course students, and 14.6 per cent in the case of research students;
- Students from developing countries with fluctuating currencies or countries that have unfavourable exchange rates with the Australian dollar have been adversely affected by the increased value of the Australian dollar;
- International students feel their financial circumstances are constrained by visa regulations which limit the number of hours they may work (and thus any supplementary income they may earn) during the academic year. Students also express some frustration that (in some states at least)...
Download the Report: University student finances in 2012.

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National Taiwan University will launch Chinese-language Massive Open Online Courses on probability and China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang Aug. 31 as part of efforts promoting Taiwan’s higher education sector.
“It is critically important for NTU professors to conduct Chinese-language interactive teaching with students from around the globe for the first time in MOOC history,” said Yeh Ping-cheng, director of the NTU MOOC project and associate professor of NTU Department of Electrical Engineering.
Taipei City-basd NTU is set to launch two other MOOCs on introduction to optics and machine learning, as well as up to 10 Chinese-language courses by the end of the year, Yeh said. The first two courses have received more than 10,000 registrations from around the world, he added.
Yeh and his students also developed “PaGamO,” a multiplayer online game for MOOCs. Aiming to make learning more enjoyable, the application will be used during the probability course.
MOOCs are playing a key role in the development of distance education, with providers including profit and nonprofit organizations such as Coursera, edX and Udacity.
NTU became the first local university to partner with U.S. educational technology company Coursera in February. It joins 75 prestigious education institutions worldwide, including Ivy League universities such as Brown, Princeton and Yale.

By Carolyn Fox. India is the second biggest market for MOOCs (massive open online courses) in the world, following the US. In time, however, India may surpass the US. After all, India's population is second to China's and India is third in terms of university enrollment worldwide; respectively the US and China are first and second for university enrollment at the moment but this may soon change.
MOOCs represent a huge opportunity for Indians in terms of an open education revolution. It could potentially give millions access and availability to high quality learning if they have Internet connectivity. First, there are more applicants than slots at top Indian universities. Second, millions of Indians live in poverty and are unable to afford or gain access to a higher education. More...

Aiming to take education to every doorstep, Union HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju today said they intend to leverage the broadband network by embracing the 'Massive Open Online Courses' (MOOC) programme in a big way.
"...to make education more accessible, we have in the horizon MOOC, leveraging on the broadband education platform," Raju said at a function here while harping on sustainable development through such efforts. More...