Dive Brief:

• Australia's Deakin University will launch several new postgraduate degrees next year by way of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and will offer students a free two-week pilot to acclimate to the program. 
• One of Australia's first institutions to offer distance learning, Deakin will offer specialized degrees in social service, finance and healthcare, at a cost of about $2,000 for each set of subject content. 
• School officials say their goal is to expose students to an increasingly globalized world with pressing needs in several industries. 

Dive Insight:

While the United States still paces the world in the number of international students seeking education and credentialing within its borders, other countries are gaining ground in working to attract students to competitive credentialing and training options.

While some estimates suggest that online learning will decline before 2020, China and Australia are working to make their programs and learning modules more accessible to a broader pool of students, which could put colleges in the U.S. at a growing disadvantage for international, and possibly domestic recruiting.