How to attract a desirable mix of international students

There are currently 622,050 international students enrolled in Australia, an increase of 12% compared to 2018.

A newly released report by Salvatore Babones from the Centre for Independent Studies claims that Australian universities are over-dependent on Chinese students, posing risks to universities.

Babones’ research reports that over 40% of international students in Australia come from China. However, data from the Australian government’s Department of Education over the past year consistently shows that Chinese students account for around 29% of international enrolments.

It is true that Chinese students are the biggest cohort of international students in many Australian universities. However, it is important to understand that this is not due to a lack of effort on the part of Australian universities to diversify their international student population.

In fact, China is the largest source country for Anglophone destination countries, providing 32% of international students for Canada, 21% for the United Kingdom and 32% for the United States in 2016, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

In addition to 112,329 students from China, Australia hosted 46,316 from India as well as large and growing numbers from Malaysia (15,309), Nepal (14,712) and Vietnam (14,491) in 2018. Babones claims Australia should not rely on India and needs to diversity its source countries.

Finding a balance

Most Australian universities are, however, well aware of the risks of putting all their eggs in one or certain baskets. As a consequence, they have been grappling with what to do to attract a desirable mix of international students.

It has been a deliberate strategy for many Australian universities to seek to balance the geographic spectrum of their international enrolment, especially given that student mobility is now more than ever subject to political, economic and demographic factors.

However, how to effectively achieve diversification and sustain international student enrolments while ensuring entrants are genuine is a crucial question for Australian universities.

Improving the quality of the overall student experience and subsequent international student employability is the key to enhancing the attractiveness of Australia as a study destination and thus ensuring the effectiveness of its diversification strategy.

Australian universities have lived through the impact of the 2009-10 violence against Indian students, which demonstrated how discrimination can be detrimental to international student enrolment. Upon recovery of the downturn in Indian student numbers, Australia’s positioning as a sought-after international education provider remains strong despite expected cohort fluctuations.

The need to include international students as welcome members of Australian society has long been asserted.

More than cash cows

While an imbalance between investment in marketing/recruitment and provision of support for international students remains, there have been continuing efforts by universities and stakeholders to address the needs of international students.

International students are a key revenue source to Australian universities, but it is important to acknowledge their contributions beyond economic benefits. Much more needs to be done to support international students, ensure universities deliver on their promises and thus support the sustainable growth of student numbers.

Accordingly, universities, professional organisations and government bodies at different levels, including the International Education Association of Australia, ISANA International Education Association, city councils and Austrade have been working in tandem to address the following key issues related to the full cycle of the international student experience:

• • Quality of teaching and learning;
  
  
• • Engagement between domestic and international students;
  
  
• • Student welfare and mental health support services;
  
  
• • Access to suitable housing through more on and near campus purpose-built accommodation;
  
  
• • Employability of international students and graduates;
  
  
• • Countering stereotypes, such as international students taking away university places and jobs of locals;
  
  
• • Raising the awareness of broader communities about the value of international students.

Another key strategy to boost diversity in international student recruitment across and within regions is to embed recruitment within a holistic and comprehensive approach to internationalisation that embraces multifaceted collaborations between Australia and source countries.

This is closely linked with a strategy to move away from a one-way approach to reciprocal student mobility and to adopt multilateral research and academic collaborations. This approach highlights that diversification is not limited to the education provider country – Australia in this case.

More than one-way mobility

While Australia has had strong growth in inbound student numbers from China, its outbound mobility to China (and to Asia more broadly) is also facing an exponential rise.

The New Colombo Plan or NCP has been an important enabler of this reciprocal mobility trend, which supports 23% of Australian students undertaking learning abroad. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade data shows that Indonesia, China, India, Vietnam and Japan are the top five destinations for NCP mobility students in 2019.

Further, Australian universities’ engagement with China is broader and deeper than just having Chinese students studying in Australia. In fact China has the most institution-to-institution agreements, including collaborative research agreements, with Australia – well ahead of the United States.

These efforts need to be strategically built on and require further investment as they are crucial to a sustainable and diversified internationalisation and recruitment strategy.

The contributions and benefits brought to Australia by international students go well beyond economic dimensions, to the development of cultural awareness, global knowledge, research advancement, transnational networks and political connections.

A focus on improving the whole international student experience, including employability and employment outcomes, is vital to sustaining long-term recruitment targets and making Australia an attractive destination to diverse source countries.

To grow the Australian brand, the diversification strategy needs to align the development of multiple marketing channels towards target countries with coordinated and multifaceted partnerships across borders, not only at the institutional but also at the sectoral and government levels.

Australian universities must leverage strategies and policies to sustain growing student numbers from Vietnam, Malaysia and Nepal among others, which are seeing rapid expansion of middle-class families and a growing ambition for reciprocal mobility and multi-faceted collaborations with Australian universities.

Ly Tran is an associate professor in the School of Education, Deakin University, and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Ly was named as one of Vietnam’s 50 Most Influential Women 2019 by Forbes Vietnam (Research-Education Category). Dr Helen Forbes-Mewett is discipline head of sociology at Monash University in Australia and deputy director of the Monash Migration and Inclusion Centre. Her work relates to human security, migration, cultural diversity and social cohesion, with a particular focus on international students. Dr Forbes-Mewett sits on the Victorian Multicultural Commission Regional Advisory Council.