Posted August 11, 2018 07:23:17 Online education is the fastest-growing sector of Australia’s economy and has now become the largest employer in the country.
Key points:The College says that online education accounted for $US7.8 billion of the nation’s GDP in 2017The report says there is no shortage of candidates for the job, with a growing demand for skills onlineCollege president Professor David Prentice said there were many factors contributing to the rise of online educationBut he acknowledged that there were concerns over the way universities were responding to student demands for online courses.
“We have seen a dramatic rise in demand for online education and the challenges faced by universities in dealing with that,” he said.
“In the past there were a lot of policies around how they could respond to these kinds of things.”
In 2017, the College recorded $US6.4 billion in revenues from its online education business.
“That is quite an increase from 2016, but not all of that has gone to online education,” he added.
“Some of it has gone towards our research and teaching and student outcomes.”
The report noted that the Australian economy was now valued at $US15.9 trillion.
“With all of the growth in online education over the past few years, it’s an industry that’s going to be worth $8.7 billion a day to the Australian taxpayer in the next five years,” Professor Prentice explained.
“This means we’re going to see this sector be worth another $2.4 trillion a year by 2020.”
The College’s new annual report on online education was released today.
Topics:education,education-industry,jobs,jobs-and-labour,jobs per capita,education,jobssource ABC News(AUS) (C)2017 ABC Media Group,Adelaide,SA,SA6020,Tasmania,ACT,VicSource ABC News
