Australia set to open borders for international students

In a sign of just how reliant Australia’s higher education sector has become on overseas students, the government is working on a plan to allow 350 in

But the extraordinary steps to help the US$26 billion export industry recover from the coronavirus lockdown may not be enough to guarantee its long-term future

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A student reads while sitting on a ledge at the Quadrangle of the University of Sydney, Australia. Photo: AP

Published: 11:45am, 2 Jul 2020Updated: 7:32pm, 2 Jul 2020

While Australia’s borders remain firmly closed to overseas visitors, the government plans to make a notable exception as it races to save its fourth-biggest export: education.

In time for the new semester, authorities are working on a plan to allow 350 international students to be flown into Canberra, the nation’s capital, later this month to resume classes. Under a trial programme that could be rolled out nationally, the universities and territory government will foot the bill for their two-week mandatory quarantine in hotels.

It is a sign of just how reliant Australia’s higher education sector has become on overseas students, who make up roughly a quarter of all enrolments – the second-highest ratio in the world after Luxembourg – and 40 per cent of student revenues due to the higher fees they are charged.

But the extraordinary steps to help the A$38 billion (US$26 billion) export industry recover from the coronavirus lockdown may not be enough to guarantee its long-term future.

A university student pictured at a graduation ceremony from the School of Commerce at the University of Sydney in 2016. Photo: Reuters

Australia has fallen behind the US, Britain and France in the highly competitive market by opening fewer offshore campuses. And with 37 per cent of its international students at universities coming from China in 2019, it serves as a warning to other nations of the perils of growing too dependent on a single market.

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