Australia’s education exports took a $9bn hit from Covid in 2020

Travel restrictions on international students cost Australia nearly $9bn in lost education export revenue in 2020.

The COVID travel ban emptied airports, stranded international students, and cost Australia nearly $9bn in lost education export revenue.

The ban on international students entering Australia cost nearly $9bn in lost export revenue last year, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In 2020, the total value of education exports — including tuition fees paid by international students as well as spending on food, clothing, rent, entertainment, travel and other costs — was $31.5bn, down from the record high of $40.3bn in 2019.

The international education industry expects that the figure will fall further in 2021 because international students who come to Australia generally stay for two years or more.

This year, universities and other education providers will be without the students who could not enter the country last year, as well as those who won’t come in 2021.

“These numbers will only get worse before they get better,” said Phil Honeywood, chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia.

He said the $9bn revenue decline showed the devastating economic impact of the loss of international students.

E X P O R T S

“Attempts by various politicians to suggest there has been only a small enrolment decline must be contrasted with this clear hit to our national revenue,” Mr Honeywood said.

Federal government ministers, including Education Minister Alan Tudge, have sought to minimise the significance of the decline in international students, pointing out that last year’s higher education enrolments were only 5 per cent less than 2019.

However, this figure does not show the impact on other education sectors, nor does it capture other damaging impacts including the cascading losses in later years from students who can’t enter Australia, tuition fee discounts which many education providers have offered to retain students, and the loss to Australia’s broader economy when international students study online from their home countries and do not spend on living costs in Australia.

Peak body Universities Australia said the ABS data starkly illustrated the economic cost of restricting student entry.

“International education is Australia’s fourth largest export. However, with around 140,000 international students now outside of Australia, their contribution to the Australian economy will be significantly reduced,” said UA chief executive Catriona Jackson.

“We stand ready to welcome international students back to the classroom as soon as it is safe.”