Recently, a large Australian Campus Management Group declared bankruptcy, GCM Fashion Institute to which they belong, Meridian International School, Meridian International Hotel School, International Design School and Meridian Institute therefore closed, 1265 China students affected. Study and work in Australia for 18 years, the Dean of the International College, Dr. Zheng Tongtao in an interview, talking about the Australian education system and study abroad.

Inevitable in the accident, by chance in the inevitable, which is Zheng Tongtao’s conclusion, he summarized the reasons. First, the Australian private industry adopts a mode of operation, in order to be profit-based. Secondly, the Australian government does not regulateprivate schools; these schools do not have effective management measures. In addition, the domestic education agents is not very standardized, there are regulatory issues. Most Australian education agents will take 15% -20% of the rebate from the cooperated schools which do not provide comprehensive and objective introduction of foreign schools and theydid not sufficiently investigate these schools’ reliability. Therefore, to reduce the risk, the domestic education agents should be more responsible for parents and students.

Study abroad, we need to choose the institutions very carefully

According to Dr. Zheng Tongtao, when we talk about Australian college, we need to know that it is a relatively vague concept that they can be a university preparatory school, or even high school. Australian university students need 13 years learning time before going to colleges. If Chinese studentswant to study in Australia, they have to reach a certain level of English capability.  If not, they need to go to preparatory classes which are namely “college”. Manyuniversitiesdon’t have the preparatory classes.  Therefore, private college came into being, mainly to fill the gap between high school and college. Therefore, study abroad must choose the regular schools. Only the42 universities that Ministry of Education recognized can be called legalized ones. 

Study abroad, we should pay attention to three things.

Dr. Zheng Tongtao believes that to do three things to prepare before studying abroad. First, students need to improve foreign language skills. Second, be familiar with foreign teaching methods, students should adapt to the foreign teaching methods and examination methods. Australian schools advocate teamwork and autonomy of learning.  Learning is a collaborative process, teachers will evaluate students base on the student’s contribution to the team, so students have to learn to work with classmates well. Third, understand the local customs, and the school lifestyles.

Australia Meridian event gave us a warning.  Dr. Zheng Tongtao recommended that students and parents: must be fully prepared before studying abroad.  Finish preparatory stage and then go out, so again foreign language, professional knowledge, and psychologicalpreparation are necessary.  The parents do not follow others blindly, do not be too early to send their children out, not all students are suitable for study abroad.