A recently conducted survey of 3000 senior Indian students has showed that Australia lags behind the US and UK in a quality of life and the level of education. A worrying sign is the fact that when asked what word is associated with Australia, the first most popular answer was "kangaroo", the third one – "racism". It is interesting that the second common word was "good".
The survey was carried out by Canadian company Higher Education Strategy Association. The purpose of the survey is to show Indian students' attitudes towards such social factors as potential expectations, plan, post-secondary education etc.
The results of the study were released exclusively to the HES. It was found that 56% of respondents consider that Australian universities are of high quality, 10% deem the education is poor and 27% consider it of moderate quality. In comparison, students from the US and UK consider the Australian education is of very high quality.
However, when asked about the quality of life, Australia yields to the US and UK and lags behind Singapore, the United Emirates and Canada. Actually, only 49% of respondents consider quality of life in Australia high compared to 85% who "voted" for the US. Indeed, one third of respondents said they would like to study at a foreign university.