Until the pandemic, China accounted for a third of all international students who contributed $10 billion to the economy in 2019. But that’s well and truly changed.
Australia’s international education sector is rebounding and showing promising signs it is on a vigorous trajectory that could see it win back its former title as the nation’s third-largest export industry.
In the six months to December 31, there were 43,925 visa applications from India, compared to 38,700 from China. Nepal , Colombia and The Philippines round out the top five countries. Higher education accounted for 68 per cent of international education export income and just less than half of all overseas student enrolments in 2020. About two-thirds study in NSW and Victoria.Experts say the recent boom in Indian, Nepalese and Pakistani students is, to some degree, motivated more by their ability to gain paid employment than to acquire a qualification.
“Uncapped work rights are being misused by agents in many parts of the world who are flogging our precious student visa as some kind of cheap, low-rent work visa. No one should permit that to continue,” Hill said. In 2019, international students accounted for nearly 30 per cent of revenue in Australian universities. Longitudinal data reveals the exponential growth in education over the past decades. In 2005-06, 176,800 visas were granted, half to the university sector, with the balance going to English-language colleges, vocational colleges and a handful to schools. Fifteen years later, the figure had doubled to 354,600.
Various surveys regularly reveal that many Australians think there are too many international students in Australia and that numbers should be capped, despite the fact the sector supports more than 250,000 jobs nationally. They also think that international students take university places away from domestic students, which is not the case.
Known as the era of “cooks and hairdressers”, students, particularly from India and the subcontinent, took advantage of the policy, arriving in droves and triggering the emergence of dozens of colleges which existed merely as structures through which aspiring migrants could legitimise their claim to residency. Education was often a secondary consideration.
Regarding China, Laurie Pearcey, associate vice-president external engagement and outreach at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, says mandatory COVID-19 testing for incoming Chinese students is unlikely to put a dent in demand for an overseas education.
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