组团跑到中国来抢生源?!(54所澳洲私立高中一起到祖国去招生,学费还不便宜哦)

上周末，54所澳洲私立学将齐赴中国招生，部分学校的学费甚至高达$4万，比本土学生贵上$1万多。

此前，已经有3所学校在中国东部各省市进行了为期2周的宣传，包括Kincoppal-Rose Bay、Knox Grammar和Geelong College，校长和国际留学生部门负责人纷纷出动。

本周末，众多澳洲私立学校又将奔赴广州、香港、哈尔滨、北京和上海等地，展开宣传，希望吸引更多的中国学生来澳就读。

虽然赴中国宣传的目的之一是招揽优秀学生、促进学术发展，但收取高昂学费、增加收入也是重要因素。近些年来，从中国赴澳洲留学的学生日益增多，他们的学费也成了当地政府的重要补贴来源之一。

Kincoppal-Rose Bay女子学校位于悉尼，国际留学生的学费高达$4.01万，比澳洲本土学生高$1.1万。政府$4179的补贴超出后，国际留学生每年就要额外付逾$7000的费用。如果算上寄宿等杂七杂八的费用，一个国际留学生每年就要缴纳$7万。

Private schools go to China to lure $40,000 fee-paying students

If you’re wondering why 54 private schools are on a recruitment drive in China this weekend – when most have long waiting lists and places are hard to come by – perhaps you need to look at the lucrative margins.

Principals and international directors of schools, including Kincoppal-Rose Bay, Knox Grammar and Geelong College, have been on a five-city roadshow in China’s eastern provinces over the past two weeks. This weekend they will be in Guangzhou and Hong Kong after previously visiting Harbin, Beijing and Shanghai.

They are looking to recruit international students, who not only have the potential to boost academic results but can be charged as much as $11,000 a year in additional fees.

A schedule of fees published to accompany the visit shows international students, who are increasingly from China, pay a significant premium even when subtracting the government subsidy received by local students.

Sydney’s Kincoppal-Rose Bay girl’s school is charging $40,077 for international student tuition, $11,000 more than an Australian resident. When the $4179 government subsidy is subtracted, the foreign student is paying a premium of more than $7000 a year.

If boarding and other charges are included, then a single international student could be paying more than $70,000 a year in fees.

The fee premium for international students at Knox, Geelong College and Pymble Ladies College was more than $3000 in each case.

“Clearly, the difference in fees charged for overseas students and Australian residents far exceeds the subsidy provided by governments,” said Trevor Cobbold, a former economist with the Productivity Commission who is now the convener of the Save Our Schools public education advocacy group.

“A primary reason for these schools to charge overseas students well above the fees for Australian resident students is to provide additional revenue to fund gold plating of their facilities which are used as a marketing tool and a status symbol.”

Another person involved with two Sydney private schools said it was not only the extra fees charged to international students, but that their parents were often more willing to make donations to the building fund.

“It’s much easier to hit up Chinese parents for donations,” said the source who asked not to be named.

He said most private schools included a “voluntary” donation of about $1000 when they send out invoices three to four times a year.

“Australian parents cross this out, but the Chinese parents pay it,” he said.

Chinese students were also “higher margin”, he said, as they often opted to pay for extra activities like music lessons and tutoring, while they were also likely to boost a school’s academic performance.

The convenor of the China roadshow, Cao Lanlan from the Australia Education Assessment Service, said foreign students could not be guaranteed a place as these schools only had vacancies in certain year groups.

“Australian schools don’t want to miss out on this huge market. We see more and more schools joining the tour each year,” she said.

Ms Cao said most students went to Australia in year nine, which meant they did not need to take the gruelling zhong kao exam for entry into a Chinese senior high school.

Foreign enrolments in Australian secondary schools rose 14 per cent last year to 23,300 students, more than half of which come from China, according to federal government figures.

Principals of Kincoppal and Knox defended the strategy, arguing it was about exposing local students to foreign influences.

“Internationality is a key feature of Kincoppal-Rose Bay’s strategic goal – to ensure that all of our students have an understanding of the world outside their own as global citizens,” said
Principal Hilary Johnston-Croke.

Knox headmaster John Weeks said: “Our aim as a school with a global perspective is to encourage close interaction between all cultures and enrolling students from overseas is a successful way of doing this.”