ABSTRACT

International education is Australia's third largest ‘export’ industry, generating 18 billion dollars in 2009 (AEI 2010a) which, according to former Education Minister and now Prime Minister Julia Gillard, makes a significant contribution to Australia. 1 Since the 1980s when the Australian government moved from education as ‘aid’ to education as ‘trade’, higher education has been actively marketed and ‘sold’. Key selling points have been English as the medium of instruction, the provision of degrees in internationally mobile fields such as management/commerce and information technology (IT), and the opportunity to migrate ( Marginson 2006). Australia allows international students to settle in the belief that this makes the country more attractive as a study destination and contributes to its knowledge economy (OECD 2008).