Growing up in Asia in my early life, I was brought up to value education.  Living in Australia for over three decades, I have been very fortunate to gain three tertiary qualifications from three great Australian Universities, namely, University of Adelaide, University of South Australia and University of NSW.  Most Australian people have easy access to education.

Healthcare and education are  indeed the two most important investments that any country can make in its people,  for the future prosperity of the country.

As many people knows, China’s education system was effectively shut down during the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976) and a rising generation of students, academics and teachers were lost forever.

Today’s education system was re-born in 1986 when the Chinese Government passed a new education law, making it compulsory for all Chinese children to attend school for at least 9 years.

Today, China’s education system is the largest in the world, with 99.7% of the population achieving the nine-year basic education and over 20% of students going on to attend higher education. China is becoming a smarter and better educated country.

Over 9 million students took their National Higher Education Entrance Examination this year and many choose to complete their studies overseas (US universities report that there are 235,600 Chinese students studying in America comprise nearly 29% of all foreigners enrolled in US higher education, a number which has increased by more than 21% over the past 12 months).

With over 150,000 students enrolled in Australian universities, education has become Australia’s top services export and fourth largest export overall, behind iron ore, coal and gold but ahead of tourism, natural gas and crude oil.

But China now has plans to fight back, to retain more of its own students and to attract foreign students as well, transforming itself into an ‘innovative economy and an education hub’.

The Ministry of Education has publicly declared its ambition to increase the international student population in China to reach 350,000 students by 2015 (currently 260,000) and 500,000 by 2020.

China’s growing middle class places a high value on study and high quality education and, despite the Government’s commit to invest in the education sector, demand will continue to outstrip supply.

Australia’s education sector is uniquely positioned to participate in the development of China’s education system by providing access to world class teachers and educational platforms, plus specialised IT systems for on-line delivery, remote access to learning materials and flexible program delivery modes. With a huge gap between future skill needs and current skill levels in vocational training,

China’s vocational industry is growing rapidly and is likely to dominate the world stage in the future, encouraging foreign students to study in China.

With China as our largest source of international students, contributing approximately AUD 4 billion to our economy, Australia can’t afford to be complacent.