Education is one of Australia s major export earners.
Australian education services exporters have been at the forefront of new ways of delivering education and training including distance education, offshore programs, joint ventures and twinning programs , where students study for a period overseas as well as for a period in Australia. At May 1999, Australian universities had 581 offshore programs with overseas higher education institutions. The WTO services negotiations are an opportunity to address the market access barriers faced by Australian education services exporters. Australian tertiary education services exporters have shown a great deal of interest to date and we will be consulting widely as the negotiations proceed. Australia will, as Trade Minister Mark Vaile has emphasised, take full account of our national interests when formulating our offers.