Author: Feng Yi (Editor: Qi Fei) （Click to view original article [view.inews.qq.com]）
Interviewee: Kirk Yan (Head of Newstars Education & Migration Melbourne Branch, licensed Australian migration agent with years of experience interpreting and forecasting migration policy changes, editor-in-chief of the Australia Migration Weekly Bulletin — affectionately known by students as “K-God”.)
“With only 20 days until the semester starts, I still don’t have a visa, haven’t bought a plane ticket, and haven’t even thought about finding a place to live. In such a short time, am I supposed to sleep on the street?” A comment on social media recently hit a raw nerve among Chinese students.
On the first day after the Lunar New Year holiday, China’s Ministry of Education announced it would stop recognising overseas university degrees obtained through online remote study. For international students, the era of remote learning during the pandemic was coming to an end. Tens of thousands of Chinese students enrolled in Australian universities — who had been preparing to continue their studies online — now had no choice but to travel to Australia before the start of the academic year.
For Australia’s education industry, the return of Chinese students would be “the key to the country’s economic recovery.” Particularly for Victoria — known as the education state — Chinese international students have reclaimed the top spot by numbers. In 2022, Indian students had overtaken Chinese students, accounting for a quarter of the state’s international student enrolment. Prior to the pandemic, however, China had always held first place.
Before the normalisation of education ties, China had already lifted its ban on Australian coal imports. Over the previous two-plus years of trade sanctions, Australian barley, coal, wine, and other goods had been frozen out of the Chinese market. With the election of Australia’s new Prime Minister Albanese, the two countries were working to repair their relationship. For outside observers, the rebound in Chinese student numbers was the most visible signal of this rapprochement.
A Flood of Chinese Students Arrives — Logistics Struggle to Keep Up
“My life plans have been completely upended. I’d already secured a job offer from a company and had planned my internship in Guangzhou — I even had accommodation sorted. But now I have to return to Australia by 20 February to complete my final semester.” Karen Zhang, 22, is from Huizhou, Guangdong. After the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, she enrolled in a Master of Accounting at the University of New South Wales and began studying remotely across the ocean.
This all stemmed from a “special announcement” issued by China’s Ministry of Education in late January, stating that it would no longer recognise overseas university qualifications obtained through online remote study — a policy that had been substantially relaxed during the pandemic out of concern for international students’ health and safety.
As countries progressively reopened their borders — and especially since 8 January this year, when China entered a new phase of its COVID response — in-person, face-to-face learning was no longer a distant prospect. The announcement was also designed to protect the interests of students receiving overseas education and to uphold educational fairness.
For many Chinese students who had been stranded at home attending online classes, however, the announcement came as something of a shock. On one hand, Australia’s higher education regulator had set a deadline of July 2023 for international students to return, and many Chinese students were not yet prepared to leave immediately. On the other hand, most Australian universities were scheduled to begin their first semester in late February to early March, meaning that in less than a month, Chinese students would need to sort out their visas, flights, and accommodation.
“At this time of year, everyone is still in Lunar New Year mode, and many education consultants are still on holiday,” Karen said. Airfares to Australia, while lower than during the pandemic, still ran to nearly RMB 5,000, with some dates already sold out.
“What’s giving me a headache is finding accommodation. Reputable Australian agencies don’t offer remote property inspections, so I’ve had to join various WeChat groups for Chinese students to see if I can find a share situation.” According to her, weekly rents for a standard two-bedroom apartment in Melbourne had risen from around AUD 400 two years ago to over AUD 500.
Australia’s education industry suffered severe disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, with border closures forcing many international students to return home. From that point, some universities shifted to online learning while still charging full tuition fees. The previous recognition of cross-border remote degrees had been a pandemic-era special measure; the change in recognition rules was simply a return to pre-pandemic norms. According to estimates from Australia’s education authorities, at least 40,000 Chinese students like Karen needed to arrive in Australia at short notice.
Australia’s Minister for Education, Jason Clare, welcomed China’s move and noted that many universities had been preparing for students to return and study in person. He acknowledged that the sudden decision could create some short-term disruptions, and said he was working with Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil on how to address them.
Oscar Zi Shao Wong, President of the Council of International Students Australia, told Phoenix Weekly that for some international students the situation was “really difficult” — they simply could not return on time and begin their studies smoothly. “Generally speaking, students from China, India, Pakistan, and Iran may face longer processing times for Australian student visas, with waiting periods sometimes exceeding three years.”
Before the pandemic, there were around 150 flights per week between China and Australia. At present, only five mainland Chinese cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Qingdao, and Xiamen — operate direct flights to Australia, all operated by Chinese carriers. According to the Guardian Australia, most flights from China to Australia in recent days have been almost completely full, while return flights to China are carrying fewer passengers. Australian airlines are also actively fielding enquiries from Chinese students, and more direct flights are expected to resume.
Scape Group is Australia’s largest owner and operator of student accommodation. Its founder, Craig Carracher, told Phoenix Weekly that bookings had been “very strong” since last August. Of the 12,000 student apartments across Sydney and Brisbane, most had been reserved by Chinese students. Recently, many had been calling from overseas to book rooms — but with very few vacancies left, their details were being added to waiting lists.
Paul Fell, Chief Operating Officer of Cedar Pacific, another student accommodation group, also conceded that demand had exceeded expectations. The company recently completed three student accommodation buildings in Melbourne. One newly opened building, located near the University of Melbourne, stands 51 storeys tall with 900 beds, and is already at 74 per cent occupancy. Another building near the Royal Melbourne Hospital has reached 71 per cent occupancy.
“Seven in every ten students at Australian universities come from overseas, with Chinese students making up 18 per cent and other Asian nationalities 14 per cent,” Fell told Phoenix Weekly. Before the pandemic, however, Chinese students had accounted for around 30 per cent.
A statement from the Property Council of Australia added to students’ anxiety: vacancy rates in some capital cities are now approaching zero. Meanwhile, according to data published by Australia’s education authorities, more than 3,500 Chinese students arrived in Australia between 1 and 25 January 2023.
“Seventy-two per cent of Chinese students choose to study at one of Australia’s eight leading universities — institutions such as the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne. It is estimated that 8 per cent of Chinese undergraduates and an even higher proportion of postgraduate students will struggle to return for the start of the new semester.” Vicki Thomson, Executive Director of the Group of Eight (Go8), pledged that they were pressing the Australian Government to prioritise visa processing for all international students in order to minimise disruption.
Spokespeople for the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales also pledged that, given the many factors beyond students’ control, they would continue to offer remote learning for overseas students unable to return until full resumption in semester two. The University of Melbourne indicated that it would continue to offer online learning options for some postgraduate students in semester one, but that all undergraduate courses would be delivered in person.
Phil Honeywood, Chief Executive Officer of the International Education Association of Australia, noted that Chinese students are the largest group of international students by numbers. As of mid-November 2022, approximately 62,000 Chinese students enrolled in Australian universities were not in the country. In the preceding month alone, Australian authorities had accepted a further 7,900 student visa applications. “Right now, as I’m being interviewed, I imagine many Chinese students are racing to board flights to Australia.”
A “Reverse Study-Abroad” Phenomenon — But Still Good Value?
Jackie Fang is a postgraduate student in accounting at the University of Tasmania. She told Phoenix Weekly: “In my year level for our programme there are 80 students — 52 Chinese, 19 Indian, and only two local students. When doing group assignments, sometimes speaking only Mandarin is enough. WeChat is our main communication tool. The president and most committee members of the international students’ association are also Chinese.”
Not only classmates — many lecturers in the programme are from India and Southeast Asia, while their tutors are native Chinese speakers. “To make it easier for Chinese students to earn credit points, the university also offers electives in Chinese poetry appreciation, Chinese literature, and Chinese-to-English translation,” Jackie added with a laugh. She jokes that she has had almost no opportunity to speak English — though she has picked up some Cantonese from her housemates.
As living standards in China have risen, studying abroad is no longer a luxury. This phenomenon has been dubbed “reverse study-abroad” by the student community, with a note of irony.
In early October 2022, a video showing a “UK university classroom full of Chinese students” went viral, accumulating over a million views. In the video, a tiered lecture theatre seating around a hundred people is filled almost entirely with Chinese students — even the lecturer at the front appears to be Chinese. Without the label indicating it was filmed at the University of Nottingham, one might mistake it for a domestic Chinese university.
According to LinkedIn big data, 207,000 Chinese students graduated from American universities in 2022 — China has been the largest source country for US higher education for 14 consecutive years. Meanwhile, one-third of all non-EU international students at UK universities are from China.
Australia is particularly popular among Chinese students. At the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University, the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Adelaide, the University of Queensland, and the University of Tasmania, Chinese students account for more than half of all international enrolments — a higher proportion than at any university in Europe or the United States.
Jackie told Phoenix Weekly that she completed her undergraduate degree in China at a non-double first-class institution and had studied business administration — a field where graduates often face tough employment prospects. Her parents had encouraged her to try for the public service exams, but in 2021 the national civil service exam attracted 1.576 million applicants, with an average competition ratio of around 61:1. “During my third year I had started preparing for the domestic postgraduate entrance exam, but the competition was intense — five of the six people in my dorm were sitting the exam, and the sixth was studying for IELTS to apply for a UK master’s programme.”
In 2022, the number of students registering for the national postgraduate entrance exam reached a record high of 4.57 million. By contrast, total enrolments that year were around 1.1 million, giving a success rate of only 24 per cent. The number of postgraduate applicants nationally is projected to exceed 4.74 million in 2023.
China Education Online publishes its Annual National Postgraduate Enrolment Survey Report each year. Looking at the past two years’ reports, it is clear that more than 80 per cent of exam-takers hold undergraduate degrees from non-double first-class institutions; nearly half spend six to twelve months preparing; and fewer than 18 per cent succeed. The admission rate at double first-class universities themselves is even lower — down to around 9 per cent.
Low admission rates are not the only challenge facing applicants. Driven by employment pressures, the competition ratios for popular programmes are staggering — Nankai University’s finance programme, for example, has a ratio of 14.1:1, law 12.7:1, and economics 10:1.
“At the end of my third year, I sat down with my parents and reconsidered our options. Rather than risk being eliminated from the postgraduate exam pool — or graduating only to find a job paying RMB 3,000–4,000 a month — I decided to take a chance and study abroad,” Jackie said. Having made up her mind, she spent her fourth-year internship period consulting education agents, comparing the advantages of different countries, and cramming for IELTS. She ultimately chose the University of Tasmania as the best value-for-money option. “Even though it’s not a Go8 university, a two-year master’s programme — accounting for holidays — effectively runs for only about a year and a half. The degree is straightforward to complete, you don’t need to write a thesis to graduate, and annual tuition fees are only around RMB 100,000. The cost of living is also cheaper than places like the UK.”
In the latest QS World University Rankings, five Australian universities are ranked in the global top 50, and seven in the top 100 — an impressive record for a country with just 39 universities.
Beyond that, Australia appeals because, compared with the United States, entry requirements are slightly lower; compared with the one-year master’s programmes in the UK, the degree feels more substantial; and unlike many European countries, no additional language needs to be learned. Moderate tuition costs, a comfortable living environment, a small time-zone difference with China, and multiple viable pathways to permanent residency are all added attractions.
For these reasons, education.com — a globally recognised education website — ranked Australia first in its “2022 Global Top 10 Best Countries for International Students” list, overtaking the previous champion Canada to claim the top spot for the first time.
As Jackie puts it, the one awkward thing is feeling as though you’ve gone overseas — but also not really. As for the future, Jackie remains optimistic. She is confident she will find better-paying work back home, and believes an overseas degree will give her an edge over peers on the dating and marriage market. “After graduating, I plan to work in Australia for two years first to build up some experience. Even blue-collar workers here earn an average annual salary of AUD 56,000 (around RMB 270,000) — it truly is a worker’s paradise.”
Education has long been Australia’s fifth-largest export industry, contributing value comparable to that of gold. Before the pandemic, the sector generated AUD 40 billion in revenue for the national economy; after the outbreak, this figure plummeted to AUD 22 billion. Public data shows that in September 2019, Australia had 165,149 Chinese student visa holders, but by September 2022 that number had fallen by 53 per cent to just 78,234.
The Aus-China Study Group, a Sydney-based organisation providing international education support services to Chinese students, has seen its business fall by around 70 per cent compared with pre-pandemic levels — an impact that virtually “destroyed the entire industry”, according to its director Yvonne McArthur. Kirk Yan, Head of the Newstars Education & Migration Melbourne Branch, acknowledged that student visa applications over the past two years had nearly halved.
As Chinese student numbers have declined, some Australian universities have been experiencing serious financial difficulties, forcing them to cut salaries, reduce staff numbers, and discontinue certain disciplines — outcomes that could seriously undermine the country’s education and research capacity.
Australia urgently needs international students — and Chinese students in particular. PricewaterhouseCoopers research has found that for every dollar a student spends on tuition, they contribute an additional AUD 1.15 to the state economy.
Phil Honeywood, Chief Executive Officer of the International Education Association of Australia, said that it was not until Prime Minister Albanese met China’s national leader in Bali in November 2022 that Chinese student applications saw a “large-scale” increase. Even so, student visa applications have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels — over the past three years, new Indian student visa applications have for the first time outpaced Chinese applications.
On the topic of “credential inflation,” Kirk Yan noted that while “reverse study-abroad” and “watered-down master’s degrees” have become trending phrases over the past two years, the phenomenon is far from reaching saturation point — after all, only families at the very top of the economic pyramid choose to send their children overseas to study.
“The QS Graduate Employability Rankings show that Australian universities perform extremely well. Two of the world’s top ten universities for graduate employability are Australian — the University of Sydney ranks fourth, and the University of Melbourne seventh. Australian universities are similarly highly ranked for employer reputation.” Kirk Yan told Phoenix Weekly that studying abroad is not simply about obtaining an overseas qualification — it is also about improving language skills, expanding one’s professional network, and gaining an international perspective. “Beyond the perennially popular accounting and IT fields, we are seeing noticeably more enquiries about nursing, social work, teaching, and law — which shows that Chinese students’ choices of study in Australia have become more diverse.”
Studying in Australia: Watch Out for Hidden Risks
On 25 January, a special farewell ceremony took place at Bruny Island, a famous tourist destination in Tasmania. People placed white chrysanthemums — a symbol of peaceful rest — along the shores of Lighthouse Bay, in memory of Harry, a 16-year-old Chinese boy who drowned there on 7 November 2021.
Before the tragedy, he had been studying for three years at a secondary school in Hobart, the Tasmanian capital. More than a year after the incident, his friends finally received the official coronial report, which confirmed that he had drowned after a nylon cord became entangled around his ankle while he was diving. Following the accident, the local homestay family responsible for Harry’s day-to-day care was also investigated — why had they allowed him to go diving alone?
For underage international students opting to live off campus, a homestay is mandatory. As the number of international students has grown, the “quality” of homestay families has become increasingly variable, with differences — and hidden risks — in diet, language, culture, and lifestyle.
The “reverse study-abroad” phenomenon mentioned earlier is also making life feel a little awkward for some international students. Like most people considering studying abroad, Chinese students arrive in Australia expecting to meet local peers, experience Australian culture, and engage in genuine cross-cultural exchange.
In practice, however, because local universities need to generate revenue, some programmes have been designed from the outset to attract international students — particularly postgraduate programmes in business, economics, finance, and accounting. Furthermore, the vision of Chinese students mixing freely with local peers has not materialised — many find themselves almost entirely separated from non-Chinese students, and the disappointment is palpable.
Even when international and domestic students are placed together, friendships do not form automatically. Mona, who studied as an undergraduate at a Sydney university, recalls that even in mixed classrooms, social dynamics were completely divided — Chinese students sat with Chinese students, and locals stayed with locals. In private, each group complained about the other; Chinese students frequently felt ignored and excluded by local peers, while some domestic students were unhappy about the presence of Chinese students.
Chinese students also face a host of practical challenges that Australian universities are ill-equipped to handle — disputes with employers over casual work, disputes with landlords over housing, unfamiliarity with the Australian legal system, and limited access to mental health support.
A more “invisible” risk comes from the “China threat” narrative that has gained traction in recent years.
For example, the Australian Government’s proposed 2021 draft guidelines on countering foreign interference at universities trained domestic students to identify and report “foreign interference threats” on campus — widely understood to be directed at China. Meanwhile, the University of Technology Sydney’s international student orientation programme instructs students how to report instances of intimidation and surveillance of other students.
Even before the pandemic, Salvatore Babones, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, published a paper on “the Chinese student boom and the risks it poses to Australian universities,” claiming that some Australian universities were playing with fire by becoming increasingly dependent on revenue from international students — and Chinese students in particular. Some Western media outlets added fuel to the fire, asserting that “Australian universities have sacrificed their values and even national security in the pursuit of revenue.”
Australia has long presented itself as “the world’s most successful multicultural society.” Yet as the Australia–China relationship deteriorated, some politicians chose to politicise everything connected to China — some Chinese students were arbitrarily deported for allegedly concealing military training backgrounds, and several Australian research institutions suspended collaboration with Chinese counterparts. During the pandemic in particular, an increase in discriminatory language and behaviour targeting Chinese and other Asian communities caused many Chinese students to reconsider studying in Australia.
John Fitzgerald, Emeritus Professor at Swinburne University of Technology and a specialist in Chinese affairs, warned that when the two countries are in an adversarial relationship, Chinese students who graduate from Australian universities may find it harder to secure employment back in China.
In response, in May last year, 15 academics at Australian universities published an open letter to the federal government calling for an improvement in relations with China. The federal government subsequently introduced a series of measures to attract international students back, including waiving the AUD 630 visa application fee and removing the 40-hours-per-fortnight work limit.
The former Vice-Chancellor of the University of New South Wales also called on the community to focus on how to fulfil our responsibility to educate every enrolled student — including more than 100,000 Chinese students — rather than generating sensationalist narratives about “Chinese interference in Australian universities.” “Wrong-headed, prejudiced, inflammatory violence and bigotry will take us down a dark path. This is all far removed from the integrity, kindness, and capability we actually see in our Chinese students.”
All the more so given that Chinese students have become “the key to economic recovery” — a view shared not only by the Go8, but by Australian society more broadly.
If you have any questions about Australian migration, feel free to add Kirk on WeChat for a consultation.
