After COVID isolation, Australia struggles to bring students back

Australian universities are facing huge losses as international students look elsewhere to study despite reopened borders

Last year, Pakistani student Alee Khalid paid Southern Cross University 8,000 Australian dollars ($5,923) to study computer science on the mutually held assumption Australia’s borders would soon reopen.

But as the pandemic dragged on and Australia remained closed to foreigners, Khalid’s only option was to study online.

“They forced me to study virtually even though I said I didn’t want to because the internet in my village is unreliable and I would have to wake up at 3am to attend classes,” Khalid, 21, who is waiting on approval of a student visa, told Al Jazeera.

“I want to study in Australia and experience all the country has to offer – not receive a poor education online. I applied for my visa nine months ago but there is still no reply from the Australian embassy. When I asked the university for help, they said they can’t do anything. It’s disgusting how they have treated me.”

Southern Cross University said it does not comment publicly on individual students but that it is the student’s responsibility, not the university’s, to fulfil visa requirements. The university, which is based in northern New South Wales, also pointed out the Australian government’s border closures introduced in March 2020 had forced international students to remain overseas.

Khalid’s case highlights a predicament for Australia’s universities, which heavily depend on international students’ fees: although Australia has been open to international students and other foreigners since December, thousands still remain overseas, and at least some of those are likely to give up waiting and go study elsewhere.

About 56,000 international students have already arrived in Australia to begin or resume studies since Australia reopened its borders, and another 50,000 have applied for student visas. But 120,000 are still abroad for a host of reasons. Chinese students, for example, cannot leave their country because of lockdowns and ongoing border closures amid surging COVID-19 cases.

“Some of them won’t come back,” Universities Australia CEO Catriona Jackson told Al Jazeera.