Mumbai: Indian students have been renowned to travel abroad for further studies but with the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia, are Indians reviewing their plans to visit the land Down Under?
G'Day Mate and Welcome to Australia -- words that normally greet hordes of Indian students when they land Down Under but this could soon be a footnote in history because the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia, whether racial or not, look certain to cause a dip in the numbers who fly south to make their careers.
"I expect about a 25-40 per cent negative impact, in the short and perhaps medium-term," said Hendry LeDlie, founder and Senior Global Advisor, IDB.
According to data available:
- The number of Indian students in Australia increased from a mere 175 in 1994 to a whopping one hundred thousand in 2009
- And out of the $6.5 billion that foreign students pay out in Australia every year, 40 per cent is spent by Indians
But a section of experts feel while numbers may decline in the short-term, the Australian government will fix this problem soon.
"I expect about a 20 per cent dip in the industry, but only in the short-term. I am confident that Australians will fix the problem in the long-term," said Ravi Lochan Singh, Ex-President, Australian Authority Education Representatives in India.
The Australian government has said that it is taking every possible step in order to ensure the safety of Indians and experts feel that it would only be a matter of time before the student flow would recover.