As it happens, I have a relevant photograph that I took in Penang yesterday.

This is not a new story though. Australia has been encouraging Asian students to come to its universities in ever increasing numbers for 25 years now. I have an aunt who works for an Australian university and whose job is to constantly travel around Asia promoting the university as a place to study. I am not sure if you were aware of it, but “Monash”, the university Brett Lee is promoting in this <a href="http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/index.php/education/comments/the_business_of_indian_higher_education/">piece is actually an Australian university from Melbourne. It’s a very good university too, one of Australia’s “big seven”.

Penang is a place where Australian universities would try very hard indeed to recruit students. It’s a state that is largely ethnically Chinese, and the Malaysian government discriminates in favour of ehnic Malays in university admissions in Malaysia. This means that ethnically Chinese Malaysians come to Australian universities to study in huge numbers. Many of them then stay.

I’ve been in Australia for more than 6 years in Australia and have to say it’s a great experience for me. Love it!!