The Coronavirus pandemic has put a deep scar on the entire Australian education industry, especially concerning to international students. Due to the closed borders of the country, a severe drop in the international student enrolments would alone cost billions of dollars in the next couple of years to the universities.
What the universities and government are doing to retain the international students Universities have started to re-engineer their courses to make them more compatible with the online teachings and more cost-effective by reducing the physical infrastructural needs. Recently, the Morrison government announced the plans of injecting $1 billion into university research to cater to the Covid-induced damage. Additional 50k online short courses are also to be funded by the government.
* Road Ahead Australian universities have a high reliance on Chinese students. As the current diplomatic stance between both the countries is hitting their “lowest ebb in decades”, concerns regarding Chinese students would remain high. The hit faced by universities’ research departments due to lack of funds may further reduce the international competitiveness of the Australian universities for the coming years.
