He finished the first year of an online master’s degree in early childhood education at the University of Melbourne in China, then took advantage of a $ 4,000 scholarship from the university to come to Melbourne to complete his final year. The university has offered 12,000 such scholarships.
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Ren said he loved living here, but that some international students who chose to study online from their own country already had a job there or had adapted to online learning.
“[Students in my course] everyone plans to stay here for a long time. I think that’s an important reason why I chose to go back to Melbourne, because of the placement and a part-time job, ”he said.
“But for others … they just want to study here, maybe not live here, and maybe they don’t think they should come back just half a year,” he said.
Sophie Shen, who returned to Melbourne from China in December to complete her early childhood education career at RMIT, believes there are several reasons why students do not return, including local blockades in China, expensive flights and difficulties in renewing passports.
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Shen said that as students could now finish their degrees online, some were avoiding the costly living in Australia. Others, he said, were still afraid of COVID.
While international student enrollments are on the rise, Victorian arrivals in April 2022 were 5,930, 55% less than pre-COVID-19 levels in 2019.
Prior to the pandemic, foreign students contributed $ 13.7 billion a year to Victoria’s economy and supported nearly 80,000 jobs, according to figures used by Melbourne City Council.
Melbourne remains a popular place to study: the recent QS Best Student Cities Ranking 2023 placed it in fifth place in the world, after London, Munich, Seoul and Zurich. However, before the pandemic, the city was third.
Melbourne Mayor Sally Capp said the council was doing everything possible to attract foreign students.
“Our international students are a big part of what makes Melbourne such a fantastic place,” he said.
Universities continue to cater for students studying online. Of the 64,585 students at Deakin University, 11,202 are international. There are 21,661 national and international students studying online.
Swinburne University experienced a drop in international students in 2021, but the number is rising. A spokesman said they have between 150 and 200 international students studying online.
“In addition, we now offer online studies in semester 2 for students who may not receive their visa on time, so the number of international students studying online may increase after the start of semester 2. This responds to current visa delays. processing, “he said.
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Data from the Department of Education shows that during the year to April 2022, 27% of international student enrollments in Victoria were from China and 23% from India.
The University of Melbourne has 23,000 international students from 49 countries and, according to its 2021 annual report, 40 per cent of its students are international. It is focusing attention in India, sending an 18-person delegation on its first post-blockade trip.
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