Such growth has provided increased income for higher education institutions. The most recently available consolidated figures on Australian higher education provider finances, those for 2007 from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), show that the revenue item ‘Fee Paying Overseas Students’ was equal to $ billion and accounted for around 15% of all revenue from continuing operations ($ billion). While a proportion of this is from offshore operations, it does indicate the importance of international students to the sector. This revenue enabled them to expand opportunities for all students and devote resources to research activity. .
