Australia’s Victorian Government to support the welfare of 175,000 foreign students

The Victorian state government in Australia has decided to extend its support to the wellbeing of 175,000 international students by funding four new projects via the A$4 million International Student Welfare Grants (ISWG) programme.

In all, the projects worth $129,000 will concentrate on improving the welfare to foreign students in Victoria.

The ISWG programme will fund organisations with up to $50,000 per year to come up with projects that make the experiences of international students in Victoria much more comfortable and friendlier.

The Victorian government announced the grants, which are crucial to its recently initiated International Education Sector Strategy. In order to make it successful, the government is interacting with student associations and universities to initiate projects to improve holistically the comfort and wellbeing of international students while they reside in the state of Victoria.

Victoria’s largest export sector is international education, which contributed A$5.6 billion to the state's economy in 2015, besides generating employment for 30,000 persons.

Student groups have been invited to submit new projects to the ISWG to be considered at any point in time.

Victoria has already been providing services for foreign students via the Study Melbourne Student Centre in order to complement services provided by universities or colleges.

That Australia has been a welcoming place for students wanting to pursue high-quality higher education is a well-known fact. Such initiatives, as mentioned above, will encourage more students from India to go and study there.