Universities Forced to Face Addiction to Foreign Students’ Money
- Lockdowns, travel bans are jolting multi-billion dollar sector
- Crisis offers China an opportunity to promote its own schools
This article is for subscribers only.
When the coronavirus outbreak triggered travel bans during the Lunar New Year holidays, about 100,000 Chinese students were stranded at home and unable to return to Australia. Siqi Li, a 23-year-old Master of Science student from Guangdong province, was one of them.
“The first thing I felt was really panicked,” said Li, who had to spend two weeks in Malaysia before authorities would let her into Australia. She’s now living in lockdown and trying to study online after the University of Melbourne switched to a virtual campus.