CHENNAI: Fee payments from India to Australian universities have become a notch easier. Private sector lender ICICI Bank said on Tuesday that it has partnered with Australia’s Westpac Banking Corporation to create a platform named Money2World (M2W), which students with accounts in Indian banks can utilise to pay fee to Australian colleges.
According to Australian High Commission in New Delhi, the number of Indian students taking up courses at Australian universities has risen to a seven-year high, with nearly 70,000 students studying in Australian universities and colleges as of November 2017, a 14.65 per cent compared to last year.
Through the M2W platform, Indian residents with an account in any bank in the country, can initiate an online remittance to make fee payments to an Australian university at a fixed exchange rate, the company said in a statement.
The full value of such payments will be credited to the beneficiary university without any deduction in the name of charges, said ICICI, which is the first Indian bank to have inked a deal with Westpac and La Trobe University.
The Indian private sector lender said it is also looking to tie-up with other Australian universities and colleges for the initiative.