CANBERRA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The number of international students studying in Australia's Northern Territory (NT) has increased 25 percent in a year.

According to official official data released on Sunday, there were 3,100 international students enrolled in courses in the NT in September 2019, up from 2,500 in September 2018.

The growth in the NT was more than double the nationwide increase of 11 percent.

The top three countries of origin for international students in the NT were Nepal, India and China. Brazilian students were in the top 10 for the first time.

NT's Chief Minister Michael Gunner in April released the International Education and Training Strategy, a key goal of which was to boost the number of international students in the NT to 10,000 by 2025.

Doing so would more than triple the value of international education to the territory's economy from 91 million Australian dollars (62.2 million U.S. dollars) in 2018 to more than 300 million Australian dollars (205.2 million U.S. dollars).

"The Territory Labor Government's number one priority is jobs for Territorians," Selena Uibo, the NT's Minister for Workforce Training, said in a statement.

"By attracting more international students to the Territory, we are helping to support locals by diversifying the economy, growing the population and supporting local jobs."

Data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in August 2018 revealed that international students contributed 31.9 billion Australian dollars (21.8 billion U.S. dollars) to the Australian economy in financial year 2017/18.

A separate report from Deloitte found that every international student contributes an average of 40,693 Australian dollars (27,834.2 U.S. dollars) to the Australian economy every year. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)