The attractiveness of Australian universities is obscured for Chinese and Indian students education

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Raj Kiran Grewal, who lives in Mohalin, Punjab, India, saw Australia as the perfect place to do an MBA.

But after 20 months of trying to set aside the country’s ultra-stringent border controls, Grewal is so disgusted with “false expectations” that he is studying in the United States or Canada.

“Australia is definitely not the right option because they want international student money and they don’t care about the rest,” Grewal said.

“I am really upset with the way universities and immigration treat people abroad, including international students, and relatives of people living in Australia,” he added, explaining how he delayed his course when Australia initially closed its borders. Only in 2020 after his university refused the option to study online to cancel enrollment.

Grewal is one of the international students who has looked elsewhere in Australia’s self-imposed isolation era, fearing long-term damage to one of the country’s most lucrative industries.

Students from China, India and other Asian countries have long been attracted to Australia to study because of its higher education universities, English-speaking environment and comfortable lifestyle. Prior to the pandemic, international education contributed 40 billion Australian dollars ($ 29.5 billion) to the economy, making the sector the fourth largest exporter after iron ore, coal and gas.

International students accounted for 21 per cent of all university enrollments in 2019, compared to the average of 6 per cent in developed countries, according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Australia’s decision to close its borders in March 2020 prompted people to look elsewhere, with international enrollment falling by more than 200,000 in the 20 months to August this year, according to data from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

In August, the number of students from abroad fell to its lowest level since 2015, just over 550,000. Chinese citizens were the largest proportion of foreign students, coming from India, Nepal, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Earlier this month, the Adventus recruitment platform reported that international student applications had fallen by 51 per cent since March, and applications to Canada, the UK and the US had risen by 148-422 per cent.

On November 1, when Australia reopened its borders to citizens and permanent residents, the government has not given any timetable to find out if international students can return to the country en masse.

States and territories including Victoria and New South Wales have announced pilot schemes for the reception of international students from next month. Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge said in October that he hoped tens of thousands of students could return next year.

Today, there are about 145,000 students abroad in limbo, after delaying their studies or choosing to take courses online.

Financial collapse

Sovia Gill, an international student studying online from his hometown of Kapurthala in Punjab, India, said in early 2020 that some of his friends had moved to Canadian universities for lack of clarity to reopen Australia.

“They’re already established,” said Gill, who is studying for a master’s degree in engineering at the University of South Queensland.

“Since I’m already in the middle of the program, I’ve already spent thousands of dollars. I can’t leave and waste all that money. “

Some analysts have warned that the sector is facing a year-long financial attack. In August, the Mitchell Institute in Melbourne announced that the industry had yet to see its worst loss after college profits fell by $ 1.6 billion in 2020.

In a report last month, Ernst & Young suggested that demand for higher education might never recover to pre-pandemic levels, and that college revenue would be reduced by $ 5-6 million by 2030.

“I think universities are nervous,” said Peter Hurley, a member of the Mitchell Institute’s education policy.

“I think, however, that an intake that is much lower than the days before the pandemic would also be reassuring!”

Hurley said the ongoing damage was a concern, but was optimistic about the medium- and long-term outlook because the sector “has tremendous resilience to the pandemic.”

Australia’s international education sector may also face headwinds with political tensions with China, analysts say [FILE: Jason Lee/Reuters]

Andrew Norton, an expert in higher education policy at the Australian National University, said international enrollment would not return to 2019 levels soon, but it was difficult to predict a longer-term trajectory.

“Australia has continued advantages over Asia and its proximity to the climate,” Norton said. “But other factors, such as competitor strategies, political tensions with China, migration settings, regulatory changes in English language proficiency, and future unknown events, such as COVID, could affect market scale.”

Some industry data suggest that the sector’s outlook remains rosy.

Anne-Marie Lansdown, the Australian university’s deputy director of universities representing the country’s universities, said the “basic appeal” of tertiary education in Australia has not changed and said a large number of students would return next year.

“Our universities continue to be among the best in the world, attracting scholars from 140 different countries before the pandemic,” Lansdown said, adding that 91 per cent of international students surveyed in Australia 2020 had a positive experience in the country.

“Universities have worked hard to support all students who are very strongly committed to online learning, regardless of their geographical location.”

Even though Australia’s international education industry is finally recovering, it can’t be confused with the frustration of students like Grewal after being in limbo for almost two years.

“They should shed more light on reopening the boundaries so that students can find something else to do during that time,” Grewal said. “They haven’t been very understandable … That’s the reason the statistics show a decline in the number of international students.”