Photovoltaics and other renewable energy technologies need to undergo massive expansion to meet their potential to be the dominant global primary energy supply in a century from now.

Education of large numbers of engineers is pivotal to allowing that expansion to occur. The University of New South Wales, for example, offers two Bachelor degree programs, combined degree programs, three postgraduate coursework programs and research degrees in photovoltaics and renewable energy engineering. Efforts are underway to increase accessibility for international students from the Asia-Pacific region. The coursework Masters program, previously under threat due to low levels on interest among Australian students, has been significantly revised to be three semesters and enrolments are growing strongly.

The main barriers to accessing educational opportunities in Australia are tuition fees and English language proficiency. In an effort to reduce the first of these, funding has been granted from the Australian Government under the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP) and the first students started in 2008. These funds, up to AUD5.2 million, support (a) half the tuition fees at UNSW for postgraduate coursework students from China, India or South Korea, (b) full fees for PhD students from those five countries, (c) third and fourth year undergraduate study for students from particular Chinese universities and (d) limited English language tuition.

This strengthening of education links will complement and foster the existing and growing research and technology commercialisation connections of UNSW with the Asia-Pacific region.