Explain Why Overseas Student Choose to Study in Australian Universities

The salary gap is most apparent among those with up to five years of work experience where overseas graduates are earning a significant 20 percent more than their local counterparts. Even after 10 years or more of work experience, the gap is still more than 10 percent.
In terms of job specialization, the biggest salary gap between overseas and local graduates is in business-related fields such as management, economics, finance and marketing where overseas graduates earn about 15 percent more than local graduates.
In the engineering and IT/Computer fields, salaries are about 11 percent higher for overseas graduates.
We also did a similar study among 20,000 JobStreet.com members in Singapore and we observed that there is no significant difference between the salaries of graduates from local Singaporean universities and overseas universities even after five or 10 years of work experience.
In conclusion, a Malaysian who graduates from a local Malaysian university earns on average a lower salary than those who graduate from an overseas university. There were no significant difference in salaries that exists among graduates in Singapore.
Note: For this research, the term “overseas” refers to the top three most popular overseas destinations for tertiary studies – Australia, Great Britain and United States – and includes twinning programmes.
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"It will change your life. You’ll come back a new person.” For years, the benefits of study abroad have been described in these words. Everyone in the study abroad field believed it could greatly impact a student’s life, but the exact long-term benefits were unknown—until now.

The first large-scale survey to explore the long-term impact of study abroad on a student’s personal, professional, and academic life shows that study abroad positively and unequivocally influences the career path, world-view, and self-confidence of students.

The Institute for the International Education of Students (IES), www.iesabroad.org, surveyed alumni from all IES study abroad programs from 1950 to 1999. Regardless of where students studied and for how long, the data from the more than 3,400 respondents (a 23 percent response rate) shows that studying abroad is usually a defining moment in a young person's life and continues to impact the participant’s life for years after the experience.

Survey Item
% Full Year
% Fall
Semester
% Spring Semester
% Summer
% Total
Personal Development
Increased self-confidence 98% 95% 96% 97% 96%
Served as a catalyst for increased maturity 98% 97% 97% 95% 97%
Has had a lasting impact on world view 97% 95% 94% 92% 95%
Academic Commitment
Enhanced interest in academic study 81% 80% 79% 84% 80%
Influenced subsequent educational experiences 91% 85% 86% 84% 87%
Reinforced commitment to foreign language study 88% 83% 85% 90% 86%
Intercultural Development
Helped me better understand my own cultural values and biases 99% 97% 97% 95% 98%
Influenced me to seek out a greater diversity of friends 94% 88% 89% 86% 90%
Continues to influence interactions with people from different cultures 97% 93% 92% 92% 94%
Career development
Acquired skill sets that influenced career path 82% 73% 74% 71% 76%
Ignited an interest in a career direction pursued after the experience 70% 57% 59% 59% 62%
Personal Growth

“Overall, I learned a lot more about myself in that one semester than I did in the three and a half years in my home school because of the unique space in which I learned, experienced, and spent exploring another culture,” says Carolyn Valtos (IES Adelaide, 1992).

An overwhelming majority of respondents echoed Valtos’ feeling. When asked about personal growth, 97 percent said studying abroad served as a catalyst for increased maturity, 96 percent reported increased self-confidence, 89 percent said that it enabled them to tolerate ambiguity, and 95 percent stated that it has had a lasting impact on their world view.

Findings also show that study abroad leads to long-lasting friendships with other U.S. students and still impacts current relationships. More than half the respondents are still in contact with U.S. friends met while studying abroad, and 73 percent said the experience continues to influence the decisions they make in their family life.

Alexa Sand (IES Milan, 1989), who is still very close to U.S. friends she met abroad ten years ago, explains, “I think the shared experience of living fully immersed in another culture made these friendships particularly poignant and enduring.”

Intercultural Development

Study abroad educators often assert that one of the goals of study abroad is to train future global leaders to be more effective, respectful of other cultures and political and economic systems, and willing to take a stand for the world’s welfare, not just what benefits a specific country. The survey findings indicate that study abroad is succeeding in its mission.

When questioned about intercultural development, 98 percent of respondents said that study abroad helped them to better understand their own cultural values and biases, and 82 percent replied that study abroad contributed to their developing a more sophisticated way of looking at the world.

“ The experience of living and studying in another country was so eye-opening … [it] tested preconceptions and habits I wasn’t even aware were so ingrained in me,” says Cynthia Perras (IES Paris, 1981).

It is significant to note that these intercultural benefits are not fleeting but continue to impact participants’ lives long after their time abroad. Almost all of the respondents (94 percent) reported that the experience continues to influence interactions with people from different cultures, and 23 percent still maintain contact with host-country friends. Ninety percent said that the experience influenced them to seek out a greater diversity of friends, and 64 percent said that it also influenced them to explore other cultures.

“It has been nearly ten years since I was a student in Vienna, but not a single day goes by where its impact is not felt in my life,” says Jason Thornberg (IES Vienna, 1994). “My time there fundamentally changed how I view the world and has given me the ability to view the world, and its issues, from several perspectives.”

Education and Career Attainment

“My semester [abroad] launched me into a personal and professional involvement with Spain that has already lasted 25 years. A political science lecture in Madrid about U.S. and Spanish involvement in an obscure war in Sahara … led to a graduate fellowship to Spain and North Africa, which led to work as a foreign correspondent based in Spain,” says Gary Abramson (IES Madrid, 1978).

It is noteworthy that the majority of respondents gave academic and professional accounts similar to Abramson’s. When questioned about academic pursuits, 87 percent of respondents said that study abroad influenced subsequent educational experiences, 63 percent said that it influenced their decision to expand or change academic majors, and 64 percent reported that it influenced their decision to attend graduate school. Nearly half of all respondents have engaged in international work or volunteerism since studying abroad.

“ An entire range of professional opportunities have opened up to me in recent years, partly due to the skills and internship experiences I gained,” adds Joydeep Sengupta (IES Madrid, 1998).

Similar to Sengupta’s experience, three-quarters of respondents asserted that they acquired skill sets abroad that influenced their career path, and 62 percent said that studying abroad ignited an interest in a career direction pursued after the experience.

Longer Stays Mean Greater Benefits

Consistent with national study abroad statistics, the survey found that students are generally studying abroad for a shorter duration, with the number of full-year students declining dramatically. In the 1950s and 1960s, 72 percent of respondents studied for a full year, but only 20 percent of respondents did so in the 1990s. The number of students studying for less than 10 weeks tripled from the 1950s and 1960s to the 1990s.

For many years, conventional wisdom in the study abroad field has been that “more is better”—the longer students study abroad, the more significant the academic and cultural development and personal growth benefits. According to survey results, the “more is better” idea holds true. However, results of the study also suggest that programs of at least six weeks in duration can also be enormously successful in producing important academic, inter- and intra-personal, career, and intercultural development outcomes. These findings are significant considering the current national increase in students attending shorter programs. Students attending full-year, semester, and summer programs all report the following benefits:

Enhancing the Study Abroad Experience