The federal Education Minister visited Charles Sturt University's Albury campus yesterday to promote Destination Australia scholarships announced in the budget.

As reported by The Border Mail last week, 4720 scholarships worth $15,000 will be available over four years, to be split between international and domestic students.

The lucrative international student market is often focused on metropolitan universities, but Mr Tehan said the scholarships aim to make a change.

"Our international student market is worth $34 billion to the Australian economy, yet only 3 per cent of international students are studying at regional and rural universities," Mr Tehan said.

"All the international students I've met at regional and rural universities, they love it ... Student experience at regional and rural universities is better than what they get in capital cities."

Universities have not been given any guarantees of how many extra students they would receive under the program.

"We will ensure that there is a fair spread right across the nation so that all regional and rural universities benefit," Mr Tehan said.

"They will be doing their best to ensure that those students come to their institutions.

"We want to make sure the love is spread around."

The federal government has also opened round 3 of its regional and rural scholarship program, providing $18,000 for country students to study at any university.

It had previously only been for science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses, but has now been opened up to all subjects.

"There's been such interest and such demand from students other than those wanting to study STEM subjects," Mr Tehan said.

"We do have to recognise that it is harder for regional and rural students to commute to university. They have to travel, they often have to move away from home to study."

CSU student Tom Johnstone moved from Tasmania to Albury three years ago to start his outdoor education course and said a scholarship would have made the decision easier.

"It's hard to do outdoor education in Melbourne, there's not a lot of spots to walk and climb and to go canoeing," he said.

Farrer MP Sussan Ley said the scholarships were important to ensure lives were lived well in regional Australia.

"As I know Charles Sturt, they will be making great use of this government program," she said.

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