Vale Christine Bundesen AM
Sadly, we lost one of the greatest leaders and personalities of our sector and the broader international education industry this week. Christine will be remembered for her tireless pursuit of quality and unwavering commitment to supporting the ELICOS sector. Her impact on the sector from the drafting of the standards that ultimately become regulation, as well as her contributions to the legislation designed to protect student welfare, was profound. Christine was the first-ever recipient of the English Australia Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding service to the ELICOS industry. Christine was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012 for service to international tertiary education, to name just a couple of awards. She deserved all the accolades bestowed on her and her legacy in Australia and internationally will undoubtedly stand the test of time. Christine’s generosity to the sector is further demonstrated by the Christine Bundesen AM Language Teaching Organisation (LTO) Management Grant, which is proudly one of our major annual awards. Christine is dearly missed, and my thoughts are with her family and extended community.
The Global Alliance of English Language Associations (GAELA) meeting and ST Alphe UK Conference
After many years of virtual meetings, it was a pleasure to meet in person with colleagues from our counterpart associations from around the world at the GAELA meeting ahead of the Study Travel Alphe UK workshop. The GAELA meeting highlighted the similarities of issues being experienced globally related to visa processing, and teacher shortages. Focused on market development and member support, I met with many agents at the ST Alphe UK workshop who demonstrated a high level of interest in sending students to Australia. I was happy to be able to promote our member colleges and would encourage others to attend in the future.
PIEoneer Awards: Association of the Year
I was honoured to be able to accept the Association of the Year Award at the 2022 PIEoneer Awards in person in London on 9 September. The award recognised English Australia’s achievements via our industry advocacy and support initiatives such as the Innovation Funds and regulatory relief, our targeted professional development to ensure high-quality course delivery in virtual modes, and our marketing intelligence efforts via the quarterly surveys and economic impact reports, which highlighted the impact on our sector. Thank you to our Board, our members, and industry supporters that engaged in the initiatives that led to us winning this prestigious accolade.
English Australia to lead two NSW Partner Projects for the international education sector
I am pleased to announce that English Australia will lead two out of six projects as part of the NSW Government’s Partner Projects grant program. For the first project, we will conduct research into emerging international markets to help diversify the markets international students come from. We will also lead a project to support NSW education providers to expand their reach using edtech solutions. We will continue to provide updates on these projects as they progress.
Welcome new General Appointee and State and Territory Board Members
We have just concluded our 2022 nominations and election for the English Australia Board. These seven dedicated industry leaders will serve on the Board for a two-year term.
I would like to congratulate the elected General Appointee Board Members; Ian Aird of Universal English College, Aparna Jacob of UNSW Global, Stephen Knussen of Kaplan Higher Education, and Sally Waite of Navitas English, and our State/ Territory Delegate Board members, Lucas Chiusoli of ILSC (NSW representative), John Paxton of PICE (WA representative), and Nick Philippou of RMIT English Worldwide (VIC representative).
The Future of ELICOS report
I hope members have seen the announcement on the release of our latest market research report - The Future of ELICOS. Thank you to the colleges and ELT staff who participated in the state and territory consultations and two online surveys implemented by English Australia capturing both quantitative and qualitative data. The insights from the report will inform English Australia’s advocacy with the Department of Education, ASQA, and TEQSA.
Innovation Development Fund 2021-22
The Report 3 (September) process has recently been completed. All grantees are tracking well on their activities, and English Australia’s report to the Department of Education was lodged last week.
The Final Report for grantees is due 30 November 2022, with English Australia’s Program Completion Report to the Department due 31 December 2022. At this stage, we are foreshadowing that grantee reporting will open in the last week of October via the grant system, allowing 5 weeks for the report to be submitted.
Visa update
The Education Visa Consultative Committee meeting was on Wednesday 21 September. DHA noted that the average processing time in June-August for ELICOS visas was 65 days at 50th percentile and 3 months at 75th percentile. They also advised of the new tool on the DHA website where students can enter in visa application type, sector, lodgement date and it will tell a student how long their visa might take, which is calculated at the 90th percentile. English Australia has been pushing for improvements with processing timeframes and DHA noted that processing has improved in August due to additional staffing, with 215 new visa processing staff being hired since May 22. DHA is currently seeking to fill an extra 500 positions, as announced at the recent Jobs and Skills Summit. DHA is also planning to announce a change to GTE statements which could potentially involve setting a word limit (33 words) in order to obtain more concise information from supporting documentation as required. Lastly, DHA intends to extend the no disadvantage ruling that English Australia advocated until March 2023 for eligible providers.
Annual General Meeting
Lastly, the 33rd Annual General Meeting of English Australia Limited will be held via videoconference on Thursday 13 October 2022 from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm (AEDT). Your Appointment of Representative or Appointment of Proxy form is due by 5:00 pm (AEDT) on Thursday 6 October 2022.
I would like to encourage all our full member colleges to ensure that you complete the Appointment of a representative as soon as feasible and join us for this year’s AGM.
Lastly, as always, reach out to me directly should you wish to discuss any aspects of your membership or sector-related matters.