Australia is preparing for the arrival of thousands of Chinese students, Australian Minister for Education Jason Clare said yesterday, days after the Chinese Ministry of Education told students enrolled overseas that online learning would no longer be recognized.
Australia’s education sector, which generated A$39 billion (US$27.7 billion) in export earnings before the COVID-19 pandemic, has strong ties to China, with about 150,000 Chinese enrolled in Australian universities.
Tens of thousands remain offshore after COVID-19 restrictions and strained diplomatic relations led many to return home.
File Photo: Reuters
However, with three weeks to go before Australian universities start, the Chinese ministry’s Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange on Saturday said that it would no longer recognize overseas degrees obtained via online learning and urged students to return to overseas campuses as soon as possible.
“At present, the borders of major destinations for international study have reopened, and foreign [overseas] colleges and universities have fully resumed offline teaching,” it said in a statement.
China last month dropped nearly all of its COVID-19 curbs, leading to a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths, as Beijing shifted focus to salvage a faltering economy.
The normalizing of educational ties comes weeks after Chinese officials relaxed import bans on Australian coal, as both countries work to improve diplomatic relations after more than two years of Chinese trade sanctions that have frozen trade in barley, coal and wine, and other goods and services.
Clare yesterday welcomed the move and said he would work with his counterpart in the Australian Department of Home Affairs to help universities resolve any short-term logistical issues.
Phil Honeywood, chief executive officer at International Education Association of Australia, an advocacy body for international education in the nation, said there were currently about 40,000 Chinese students still offshore.
“We anticipate a lot of Chinese students will be scrambling as we speak to get on flights to Australia. However, we imagine there will be a number of deferral applications where students just won’t be able to get back in time,” Honeywood said.
The University of Sydney expects the “vast majority” of students to be on campus when classes start late next month. It plans to phase out on-campus remote learning later this year.
The move by the Chinese education ministry has been met with anger from Chinese students.
“There are only 15 days left before the school starts — I have no visa, no flight, nowhere to live. With such a short notice, do you want us all sleeping on the streets?” one comment on Sina Weibo said.
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