International Links of Australian Universities. Formal agreements between Australian universities and overseas higher education institutions

Transcription

1 International Links of Australian Universities Formal agreements between Australian universities and overseas higher education institutions April 2014

2 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Further inquiries should be made to the Chief Executive Officer: GPO Box 1142 CANBERRA ACT 2601 Ph: Fax: contact@universitiesaustralia.edu.au Web: ABN:

3 Contents Introduction... 2 Number of Formal Agreements... 3 Type of Agreement... 5 Number of Agreements by Region... 6 Top Five Countries in Asia Top Ten Source Countries... 8 International links of Australian Universities April

4 Introduction The information for this International Links summary was supplied by Universities Australia member universities in response to a survey undertaken in late early The survey was aimed at identifying formal institution-to-institution agreements between Australian universities and overseas higher education institutions. Agreements include cooperation facilitating student exchanges, study abroad arrangements, staff exchanges and academic/research collaboration. The previous International Links survey was completed in International Links surveys have been undertaken on a regular basis since Universities were asked to indicate the name of their overseas partner institution, what activities are covered in the agreement, the year in which the agreement was first signed and whether the agreement is currently active. Separately, institutions were asked to identify their offshore programs including overseas partner institution, the type and title of the program offered and the duration of the course. This information is available in the Offshore Programs of Australian Universities report. The information below provides an overview of the sector s international engagement activities: the full data set is available on the Universities Australia website. International links of Australian Universities April

5 Number of Formal Agreements The survey was first conducted in 1990 when there were around 220 formal agreements in place. As demonstrated in Figure 1, there has been a steady increase in the number of formal agreements since that time culminating with a substantial 8305 agreements by Figure 2 provides the total number of agreements by institution for 2012 and 2014; some have seen a significant increase while others have seen a slight decrease in their total. Figure 3 indicates the number of new agreements signed since universities were last surveyed in 2012; there were 4, 227 new agreements signed since 2012, the majority provided for Study Abroad arrangements Figure 1 Number of Formal Agreements between Australian Universities and International Institutions: International links of Australian Universities April

6 Figure 2 Links by Institution 6000 New Existing Study Abroad Staff Exchange Student Exchange Academic/Research Collaboration Figure 3 New Agreements since 2012 International links of Australian Universities April

7 Type of Agreement The following figures illustrate the type of agreements universities are signing, with over 60 per cent of current agreements including a component of academic or research collaboration (Figure 4). Figure 5 and Table 1 show that over the past decade, links in all areas have increased significantly Breakdown Student Exchange Study Abroad Staff Exchange Academic/Research Collaboration Academic/Research Collaboration 64.84% Staff Exchange 45.39% Study Abroad 23.98% Student Exchange 53.89% Figure 4 Formal Agreements by Type % 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% Table 1 Formal Agreements by Type 2003 & 2014: Percentage Change % Change Study Abroad 852 (19%) 1992 (24%) 134% Staff Exchange 2771 (62%) 3770 (45%) 36% Student Exchange 3229 (72%) 4476 (54%) 38% Academic/Research Collaboration 3054 (68%) 5385 (65%) 76% TOTAL *Note figures are not mutually exclusive; agreements may include more than one type of collaboration. International links of Australian Universities April

8 Study Abroard Staff Exchange Student Exchange Academic/Research Collaboration Figure 5 Formal Agreements by Type Number of Agreements by Region Table 2 below indicates the number of agreements in each region. Australian international university links continue to be dominated by North-East Asia (27 per cent) and North-West Europe (29 per cent), however, links in North-East Asia continue to grow at a greater rate than in North-West Europe, despite the latter still having a slightly greater percentage than the former. Links with North-West Europe have declined one percentage point between while links with North-East Asia have risen two percentage points. Latin America has been identified by Universities Australia as a strategic priority for international engagement; there are currently 367 formal agreements in place between Australian and Latin American institutions. Table 2 Number of Formal Agreements by Region 2014 (*ABS Standard Classification of Countries) Oceania and Antarctica 94 1% North-East Asia % North-West Europe % Southern and Central Asia 315 4% Southern and Eastern Europe 464 6% North America % North Africa and Middle East 170 2% Latin America 367 4% South-East Asia % Sub-Saharan Africa 81 1% International links of Australian Universities April

9 Figure 6 shows the changes between regions over the past decade. It is evident that links with Africa, Central and Southern Asia as well as Southern and Eastern Europe have remained relatively stagnant since However, North-West Europe, North-East Asia and the Americas have seen a significant increase Oceania and Antactica North-West Europe Southern and Eastern Europe North Africa and Middle East South-East Asia North-East Asia Southern and Central Asia Americas Sub-Sharan Africa Figure 6 Number of Formal Agreements by Region (*ABS Standard Classification of Countries) International links of Australian Universities April

10 Top Five Countries in Asia Study Abroad Student Exchange Staff Exchange Academic/Research Collaboration India Indonesia Korea Japan China Figure 7 Top five countries in Asia by agreement type Top Ten Source Countries Figure 7 identifies the top ten source countries for international agreements. These countries have effectively comprised the top ten for the past two decades, though in 2014 India overtook both Indonesia and Sweden for the first time to make the ten. This means Sweden has dropped off the top ten list. Table 3 shows the growth since 2003, with a substantial increase in percentage terms from the UK and Germany, while China and the USA have shown significant growth from a higher base. Interestingly the proportion of agreements occupied by the top ten has decreased slightly in 2012 suggesting that Australian universities are progressively diversifying their international engagement activities (Figure 8). International links of Australian Universities April

11 Indonesia India Korea Canada France Japan UK Germany USA China Figure 8 Number of Agreements for Top Ten Countries Aggregated by Year % 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% China USA Germany Japan France UK Canada Korea Indonesia India Other Figure 9 Top Ten as Proportion International links of Australian Universities April

12 Table 3 Top Ten Source Countries China* Exc. Hong Kong and Macau % USA % Germany % UK % Japan % France % Canada % Korea % India % Indonesia % TOTAL for Top Ten % TOTAL for all countries % Top Ten proportion of total 66% 65% 65% 62% 65% % change International links of Australian Universities April