From November 2021 to January this year, a total of 56,000 international students arrived in Australia, but that remains well below pre-pandemic levels, when there were 91,250 student arrivals in January 2020 alone.
Council of International Students Australia National President Oscar Zi Shao Ong said that even though the borders have reopened, students face a range of other barriers.
Ong, who is from Malaysia and is president of the Adelaide University Union, said flight cancellations and the escalation of the pandemic in South Australia had made it difficult for students to return.
“There is limited flight availability, I know for instance Malaysian airlines have been cancelling flights to SA,” he said.
“Omicron in Australia is also a concern — there are Chinese students who are anxious about coming back with that being the case. They are also celebrating Chinese New Year right now, and are wanting to give a bit more time with family — COVID has been a hard time for everybody.”
Ong said the Council of International Students Australia is pushing for universities to continue to provide the same level of flexibility for students as when borders were closed.
He said many would arrive after the academic year commences and some would prefer to continue with online learning.
“It’s going to be a staggered return, it’s a very disruptivxjmtzywe situation for international students,” he said. “It’s a daunting few weeks for students when they arrive, getting their bank account sorted, accommodation, getting a TV, so we’ll be advocating for flexibility.”
The Adelaide-based treasurer of the Student Accommodation Association Paul Tosch told that although there was an uptick in demand for student housing, the market remains “a long way” from pre-pandemic occupancy levels.
“It’s been very tough for international student accommodation — we adhere to such strict standards, and it’s hard because these communities are geared towards students, and you can’t just pivot from that,” he said.
“We think the floodgates will open in 2023, it’s a slow build back to what was a fantastic industry.”
The emptying of international student accommodation has in turn had flow-on effects for the economies of surrounding neighbourhoods — particularly in the CBD.
A Mitchell Institute study in 2021 found that of an estimated 3,690 international students absent from South Australia due to the pandemic by October 2020, 1,510 would have been living in Adelaide’s city centre.
The study forecast that a third academic year of no international students would have cost Australia about $20 billion a year, with most of the losses outside the education sector in the broader economy.
International education was SA’s largest export prior to the pandemic, worth $2.2 billion to the state in 2019.
UniSA told international students were returning to the university, but declined to provide numbers.
“Over the past two years, UniSA has had thousands of international students waiting to travel and study here,” a UniSA spokesperson told .
“Since the border opened to student visa holders, we have had a very strong response from these students.”
