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WANG JING SAYS SHE was doing well at school on the mainland. She was a class captain and also involved in many school activities. So why did she choose to go to Australia to study?

'Although everything was good for me, I could predict my future,' she said. 'I would finish school, go to uni, get a job, get married and have children. It was all so predictable that I wanted a change.

'I wondered what would happen if I went to Australia. I wanted to meet different people and have different experiences; also my parents could support me and now I am happy that I came here.'

Ms Wang, 19, went to Australia  in 2004 to study at Northcote High School in inner-suburban Melbourne. She left her family in Anhui province and, after completing a 10-week intensive English-language course, started in Year 11 at the Northcote state school last year.

She took part in many school activities and was a member of the student representative council  last year, while this year was elected one of the two school captains.

She stays with a family near her school whom she gets on well with. 'But you have to build up your friends, everything from zero,' she said.

Ms Wang says she is now ready for her next goal, to try to win a place in the University of Melbourne to study law next year.

There are 60 overseas students of eight nationalities among Northcote's 1,300 complement, with mainland China making up the majority.

While 60 per cent of overseas students in Australia attend private boarding schools, public-sector schools  such as Northcote are now vigorously competing with the top private names to attract fee-paying students.

China and Hong Kong are the major markets, accounting for about half of the 25,000 foreign students in Australian schools.

Recruiting agents for state-sector schools tell parents of prospective students that the top private schools charge up to  A$50,000 ($292,000) a year in tuition and boarding fees, whereas government school fees are less than A$8,000 at primary and about A$12,000 in the senior secondary years.

But state school students must find their own accommodation and, if they do not have relatives in Australia, most pay  about A$200 a week in home-stays, living with local families.

Most overseas students travel to Australia to complete their final two or three years of secondary education and many  go on to  one of the country's 38 universities.

Their chances are  high. Those who sit the final school certificate courses score higher marks on average than their Australian peers. Last year, nine out of 10 overseas students who sought entry to university were accepted.

Melbourne's Glen Waverley Secondary College, which excels academically and has for some time been at the cutting edge of school innovation in Victoria, admits about 40 overseas students a year.

Lena Tan, former head of its upper school and now in charge of the international programme, said: 'The school wants kids to have a broader, global view and wants kids from all over Asia.' However, she warned that many state schools had entered the international market for the 'education dollar' and were not giving enough care and support to students.

Often, agents allocated places without parents being aware of the real character of the schools. Some were disappointed when their children found themselves in a school serving a low socio-economic area, with teachers spending much of their time trying to control unruly students rather than working for the kind of high academic achievement Asian parents expected.

She was shocked, she said, at the list of schools some agents offered and urged parents to look closely at their location and performance, including academic results, before deciding.

Ms Tan tries to provide the care and support that should be available in a good boarding school. Home-stay arrangements are carefully monitored. 'I visit them regularly, and have rules for the providers and  students,' she said, adding that she was  selective in choosing suitable families to host students.

The state had also tightened its rules, for instance reducing the number of students to two in a house and imposing other controls, which she welcomed.

The school also offers extensive language support.  'Mondays to Thursdays the kids stay from 3.30pm to 5.30pm to be rostered into extra English, or doing their homework with me,' she said. She also runs intensive 10-day programmes in April and September, to prepare students for state exams. As a result, the international students were doing at least as well as their local peers.

However, parents had to have realistic expectations. Too many students from Hong Kong, she said, were not well-prepared for overseas study. She was concerned about the low levels of English and Putonghua, as well as study skills, among some Hong Kong students who applied to the school. As a result, the school was accepting fewer Hong Kong students.

Secondary schools with up to 100 overseas students estimate the  cost of running their programmes at A$50,000 a year, not including staff salaries. However, those students contribute more than A$1 million in fees, leaving the schools with a tidy surplus.

Students wanting to enrol in Victorian public-sector schools must apply through the state Education Department's international division. Divisional manager Lyn Glover said students could nominate up to five schools but that no domestic student could be displaced.  'Whether they are accepted is dependent on a range of factors,' she said. 'We have regard to their language skills, the course they want to undertake, the emphasis in their studies and whether they have any family here.'

Under a national code agreed by all Australian states, strict rules are set down regarding the quality of the educational experience schools offer students.

Ms Glover said Victoria was setting its own quality assurance programme that set the standard even higher. Among the requirements, schools must have regular contact with the students' parents in their home country. They must ensure that  school reports are translated properly and that examples of the students' work are made available.

'When we go offshore, we set up parent meetings in each country so the school representatives can sit down and meet the parents. It's like having a parent-teacher interview.'

However, Glen Waverly's Ms Tan conceded that the fact state schools could not provide boarding facilities was a limitation, however much pastoral support her school offered. And while good education was available at lower prices than in the private boarding school sector, it might not suit every child.

Boarding, she said, provided greater structure and security.

Hartley Mitchell, head of a boarding house at the elite Geelong Grammar School 70km west of Melbourne, said an advantage of boarding was the range of young people students got to know 'in a substantial way'.

'The most important thing we can offer different to a day school is the social intelligence you can develop by living within a community of students - and that means developing the capacity to work with, appreciate and tolerate, if necessary, a whole range of different people.'

The school, which charges up to A$48,600 a year  for tuition and boarding, spread Australian and international students across  seven boarding houses so there was a mix of  people in each.

Those arriving in middle school also had the chance to spend a year at Timbertop, its campus set in the foothills of the Australian Alps, where Prince Charles spent a year in 1966, Mr Mitchell said.

Additional reporting by Katherine Forestier

Going down under

Asia is the principal source of international students in Australian schools. Those from the mainland and Hong Kong comprise nearly half the 25,500 complement. South Korea provides a further 18 per cent while other significant markets include Vietnam, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan.

International students prefer the  eastern coast states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland where 80 per cent are enrolled, most in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Although the state education departments process applications for state schools, the institutions decide who they accept. Factors taken into account include school reports from the home country, personal references and how well the student speaks English.

Overseas students require a visa to study in Australia and must meet certain requirements regarding attendance and success at their studies.

Websites:  www.studyinAustralia.gov.au;   www.study.vic.gov.au;  www.studymelbourne.com.au

Home-stay, Sydney:  www.homestay.com.au; Melbourne: www.homestay-australia.com; Brisbane:  http://education.qld.gov.au/marketing/eqi/programs/homestay.html



Increasing Chinese students opt to go public Down Under