Asian Institutes Increase Student Intake

Knowledge is not limited to national boundaries in today's cohesive world. The international migration of students for education is more of a norm than an exception now.

The 1990s saw a tremendous increase in transborder movement of students for higher degrees. For Asian students, although the US tops the list of dream destinations, many Asian countries are attractive options as well. With science and technology becoming the key driver of development in Asia, scientific educational institutes with international standards have also come up. A number of countries in this region like Australia, Japan and Singapore have increased foreign student enrollment in recent years. In 2004, more than 84,000 foreign students, mainly from the Asian region, enrolled at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Japan, of which about 50,000 enrolled in science and engineering fields.

Here is a snapshot of select Asian countries and institutes, which are bullish on life sciences education.

Australia: A rich history in science and technology

Australia is a leader in life sciences education and research.

Australia is one of the top three destinations for international students. According to statistics, in 2004, it attracted over 3,22,000 international students from over 190 different nationalities. New life sciences course work gets implemented each year keeping the students, researchers and other personnel in the forefront of biological innovation.

Life sciences education in Australian universities is supported by investment from the government and industry. The Australian government support includes various programs under Backing Australia's Ability-a five-year $3 billion innovation action plan launched in 2001. Further Australia's science and innovation performance will be boosted through a $5.3-billion package that strengthens the successful "Backing Australia's Ability" program. Together these packages constitute a 10-year, $8.3-billion funding commitment stretching from 2001 to 2011. Combined with other science and innovation programs, they take the Australian government's 10-year investment in this key area to around $52 billion.

Universities and institutes

Australia has about 37 government-funded universities and two private universities, as well as a number of specialist institutions providing approved courses at the higher education level.

Most of the Australian universities offer courses in life sciences. They are the Melbourne University, Australian National University (ANU), University of New South Wales, Curtin University of Technology, Deakin University, Edith Cowan University, Flinders University and many others. Many universities have international collaborations as well. The faculty of ANU is internationally linked with universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, Singapore and Beijing, Osaka and Seoul, California and British Columbia. Similarly, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has set up an Asian arm, UNSW Asia, which will open its doors in Singapore in March 2007 and shall offer a comprehensive range of undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees in diverse arenas including science. A new research institute for molecular science and biotechnology, known as the Bio21, was set up recently at the Melbourne University. It is one of Australia's largest biomedical research centers and home to 230 researchers, including postgraduate students, from 12 different disciplines.

Australian universities are increasingly providing unique specializations to ensure personnel and students stay abreast in life sciences as so many new fields have emerged (bioinformatics and proteomics) and each new technology leads to new capabilities and new issues (eg: bio-security, stem cell research).

Most of the undergraduate life science courses last for three years and a majority of the courses start in February. Some of the courses also begin in July and October.

Applications to study at Australian institutes can be sent directly to the institutes.

Scholarships

Most of the universities have a range of scholarship opportunities to offer. For example, the ANU offers international students from any country five full undergraduate tuition scholarships and four full undergraduate tuition scholarships for a student from each of Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Likewise the UNSW provides many scholarships for international students. They include the Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (EIPRS) and University International Postgraduate Award (UIPA). These scholarships are highly competitive. In addition, there are general as well as faculty specific scholarships for the undergraduate programs of study like the Alton and Neryda Fancourt Chapple Biological Science Scholarship; The Dean's Honours Year Scholarship; Children's Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA) Honours Scholarship amongst others for studies in the life sciences arena.

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