The graphs below show the enrolments of overseas students and local students in Australian universities over a ten year period Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant

The two line charts compare the commencing rates between local students and foreign students of universities across Australia in a period of time from 2001 to 2010. As can be seen from the charts, local students have always been outnumbered overseas students and the enrolment of overseas students is increasing over the years.

From 2001 to 2007, Australian universities have always seen a gradual increase in the total number of both local and overseas students. Starting at 400,000 for the former and 20,000 for the latter in 2001, the numbers have rised up to 600,000 and 60,000 respectively. Then, from 2007 to 2010, the total number of overseas students continued to climb up to 80,000 while that of local students remained the same at 600,000.

With regards to the new recruitment, there has been a high jump in the number of commencing students from overseas from over 10 thousands in 2001 to 40 thousands in 2009, which was then slowed down to just over 40 thousands in 2010. In contrast, the number of new local students has been fluctuated around 200 thousands over the 10-year period.