75% of the respondents think Australia is a good place to be educated as per a survey

Updated on: Wednesday, April 17, 2013

A sample survey has shown that Indians still consider Australia a favourite overseas education destination, second only to the United States, despite the spate of attacks on Indian students in 2009 and 2010. The survey, conducted among 1,233 Indians in Australia, by the Lowy Institute for International Policy and the Australia India Institute was released on Wednesday.

The survey indicates that 75% of the respondents think Australia is a good place to be educated. Australia was among the countries most preferred by Indians to pursue higher education and vocational education a few years ago. The new study adds that though a vast majority of Indians think Australia is a good place for an education, some concerns linger about the experiences of Indian students in the country.

The poll also shows that 62% of Indians feel that Australia is currently a dangerous place for Indian students, and 61% feel that attacks on Indian students in Australia were mostly caused because of a rascist attitude. The Australian government's efforts to address safety concerns appears to have had some effect on the people's perception, with 53% of Indians agreeing that Australia is safer for Indian students than it was a few years ago. More than one-fourth, however, disagree.

A note along with the study quoted from a 2011 Australian Institute of Criminology Special Report as saying that, "An in-depth study by the Australian Institute of Criminology concluded that it was impossible to determine if crimes against Indian students were rascist in nature. It also concluded that the rate of crimes against Indian students was lower than the crime rate against the general population."

The other findings of the study showed that Australia is fourth in the list of countries most liked by Indians, after the US, Singapore and Japan. "Indians feel warmer towards Australia than towards countries in Europe, including Britain, or towards India's fellow so-called BRICS: Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa," the study added.

More than half of Indians (62%) believe that Australia is a good place to live and 59% believe it is a good place to get work. But, the poll shows that Indians are also concerned about safety and family life.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said, "It is gratifying to see positive results of Indian feelings towards Australia, Indian judgments of the quality of Australia's education system, and Indian views on working with Australia in our shared neighbourhood."

Senator Carr, however, acknowledged the lingering concerns over the safety for Indian students in Australia, saying there were elements of the relationship where Australia needed to do more.

Australia's Indian community of more than 450,000 is the country's fastest growing migrant community and India is their second-largest source of international students.

75% of the respondents think Australia is a good place to be educated as per a survey

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