Even pandemic switch to UK and US, International students locked out of Australia

Sabid Hossain and his three friends knew what university they were going to. They had been planning it, he says, since he was in eighth or ninth grade.

At the end of 2020, they would graduate from their high school in Rangpur in Bangladesh. They would go – all four of them – to the University of Melbourne, more than 9,000km away.

“We weren’t looking at other cities,” he tells Guardian Australia. “Just Melbourne. We had a huge community in Melbourne at our school. We have a lot of friends who did study in Melbourne. My cousin, he went to Uni Melb and I really wanted to go there.”

But as Australia’s borders remain closed to international students, Hossain and his friends are among an increasing number of students opting for Canada, the UK or the US rather than Australia.

Monika Shen, a Chinese student looking to study Tesol (teaching English to speakers of other languages), is in the same boat.

She visited Australia in 2017 and loved it, and had planned to apply to the University of Melbourne in March 2020. She delayed that until July 2020, then until January 2021, and then again. If the borders do not open before July 2021, she says she will apply to the UK.

Many international students are studying online, and some Australian universities are offering discounts for students who enrol and study first from their home countries, while waiting to come to Australia when borders open.

Australia’s education minister, Alan Tudge, recently said it would be “very difficult” for significant numbers of students to return to Australia in 2021.

Meanwhile, the borders to Canada, the UK, the US and Ireland are largely open – even as coronavirus cases are far higher than Australia’s.

For Shen, online won’t cut it. Because she is studying a language degree, she says the whole point is to live in Australia, have classes on campus and learn through immersion.

Even Hossain, who has dreamed of Australia since he was 14, has thrown in the towel. He and his friends are splitting up.

Hossain says he has seen the mood shift – among students and also among the education agents who sell education packages to different countries.

Ravi Singh, the managing director of Global Reach, a company which promotes Australian universities in India and south Asia, says he has noticed the change in demand.

“As a contrast, Global Reach has doubled enquiries for UK and Canada. Even though we are recognised in the market as an Australian education specialist, the interest even amongst our pipeline students seem to be changing for the destinations that are open: UK, Canada and US.

Hossain says he understands why Australia has strict border controls, and has “done really great with the pandemic”, but students like him can’t wait another year.