State boosts funding for Ipswich Regional Education Consortium

Member for Ipswich Jennifer Howard has today announced funding for an innovative new Ipswich Regional Education Consortium campaign to capitalise on rapid growth in the international education industry.

Ms Howard said as part of a joint initiative with Ipswich City Council, Ipswich Regional Education Consortium would receive a $10,000 grant to better market Ipswich to prospective students.

“International education generates about $4.37 billion for Queensland’s economy each year. But we know this figure will only grow in the future,” she said.

“More visitors than ever before are visiting Ipswich to see what we have to offer. We also have some of the best education institutions in the country - it makes sense.

“That’s why we’re investing in international education in Ipswich. We’re making sure Ipswich Regional Education Consortium has the funding it needs to grow our international education sector in years to come.”

Tourism Industry Development Minister and Ministerial Champion for International Education Kate Jones said the funding for Ipswich Regional Education Consortium announced today was part of a wider Study Queensland campaign.

Ms Jones said Study Queensland’s ‘Start here. Go anywhere’ campaign was devised after months of market research to discover what motivates students to choose Queensland above other states.

“More students from across the globe are choosing to travel to Queensland every year and our international education industry has grown by around 12 per cent in the last year.

“But we know we can do more to support the student experience and ensure sustained growth in the future. This campaign is all about capitalising on our great foundation to increase our share of the international education market.

“International education currently supports around 19,000 jobs across the state. With this new campaign, we hope to grow this industry to support an extra 6800 jobs by 2026.

“That’s why we’re investing more than $25 million in this space to grow our international education sector.”

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