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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-02-27 Daily Xml
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StudyAdelaide

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:09): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Can the minister advise the council how the government is fulfilling its election commitment to double StudyAdelaide's Student Ambassador Program?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:09): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in international education and in particular the student ambassador campaign.

In less than a year the new Marshall Liberal government has made progress in fulfilling its election commitments, and that is also true in the field of international education. We took a commitment to the last election to double StudyAdelaide's Student Ambassador Program. Since 2014, the Student Ambassador Program been a very successful way to create market awareness of Adelaide as a high-quality study destination, as shared through the eyes of outstanding students in key source markets.

On 15 February, I met with six school-aged Chinese students and their parents, who were winners of StudyAdelaide's latest student ambassador campaign. The digital campaign had a substantial reach in China of some 50 million people throughout the country and was the first to promote Adelaide directly to Chinese middle and high school students, encouraging them to consider South Australia earlier in their study journey. Speaking with the student ambassadors, I learnt that both Kira Yang and Jason Chen have expanded upon their ambassador roles and chosen Adelaide for their studies as fee-paying international students. Kira has chosen to do a Bachelor of Music Theatre and Jason will do his high school schooling in Adelaide.

I am pleased to share with members that StudyAdelaide appointed 16 international student ambassadors in 2018, with 10 from Malaysia, in addition to the six Chinese students who I met that morning. We are expecting an even larger student ambassador cohort in 2019. These growing figures fulfil our election commitment to double the Student Ambassador Program. In 2017, we saw the appointment of just two student ambassadors. There were eight student ambassadors from China, India and Vietnam in 2016. We are already seeing significant growth in the sector with this past year seeing strong growth of some 10.6 per cent in the value of international education to our state. This has seen our international education exports figure reach $1.62 billion, with more than 36,000 international students enrolled to study in Adelaide in 2018.

We have increased the annual funding to StudyAdelaide to $2.5 million a year and we are demonstrating our commitment to further grow that sector. The more international students we are able to attract to this great state the greater benefits for our local economy. All these students will spend money on accommodation, goods and local services while they are living here, and creating more jobs for hardworking South Australians.

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