Perceptions and experiences of Indonesian students in Australia: WHY NOT PERTH?
Indonesia has seen consistent growth in its economy in the 20 years following the Asian financial crisis of 1997. The last decade has seen Indonesia’s annual GDP more than double to exceed USD$1Trillion. Despite this impressive growth, international student mobility remains flat at around 1% of all higher education students.
In 1999, there were 18,202 Indonesian students studying in Australia. Almost 20 years later in 2018, this number has remained flat at 18,906 enrolments (15,415 student count). Comparatively, the 8,225 students from China studying in Australia in 1999 has exploded to more than 220,000 enrolments in 2018.
One significantly remarkable development related to Indonesia’s engagement with Australia is the dramatic fall in the numbers of students choosing to study in Perth. In 1999 Perth hosted 3,458 Indonesian students. In the following 20 years this number has fallen to 1,008 enrolments (802 students).
The intention of this market research project is principally to answer the question of “why not Perth?” Or perhaps more accurately, “why not Perth anymore?”