Australia is losing international students

According to a survey, only 7% of international students who want to study at Australian universities are willing to do so purely online, as hopes fade of a return to the country before next year.

Amid warnings the economic cost from the lack of international students could reach $20bn next year, student advocates say there is “no plan” to bring students back, suggesting it will be well into 2022 before they return due to the disruptions to the vaccine rollout.

Under Australia’s strict border restrictions, international students enrolled at Australian universities cannot enter the country, forcing many to study online from home. Some institutions have offered discounted fees, while others are paying the full amount while waiting for borders to open.

A new survey of 6,000 prospective international students, conducted by student recruitment agency IDP and released on Thursday, found that students set on Australia were increasingly less willing to wait as the UK and Canada were more freely allowing students in.

Errol Phuah, the national president of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, said Australia’s vaccine rollout was far behind Canada, the UK or the US.

The IDP survey found that for students still planning on coming to Australia, only 7% said they would continue to study if their courses were fully online.

Phuah said the government should “set a clear goal” for 2022 and “stick to it” to give international students certainty, and keep them enrolled at Australian universities.

“If you look at those data on the vaccine rollout, it is very clear. Especially the US, the UK and Canada … These are our competing countries, and they are smashing us.

On Wednesday, a report from Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute found the $40bn that international students brought in before the pandemic – which includes broader retail and accommodation spending – could halve to $20bn because online enrolments were “trending downwards”.