Most stranded Chinese students oppose universities’ online options

A survey reveals that Chinese students don’t favour online courses as a substitute for studying in Australia.

A survey reveals that Chinese students don’t favour online courses as a substitute for studying in Australia.

Chinese students are decisively opposed to studying courses online as a substitute for being on campus in Australia, complicating the response of universities that are offering online options to students stranded overseas by the novel coronavirus travel ban.

A survey of more than 16,000 Chinese students who were in China and affected by the travel ban found that 68 per cent were not willing to accept online ­courses if they were offered by their university.

The opposition of Chinese students to online study reflects unpopularity in China of online education at tertiary level, where cultural norms favour face-to-face learning and online courses are regarded as second-best.

The survey was carried out by the Education Consultants Association of Australia, a non-profit professional body representing education agents who place international students into Australian education institutions.

In its commentary on the survey, which was carried out on the WeChat social media platform between February 5 and 9, ECAA said that online learning did not meet the expectations of Chinese students.

The University of NSW, where classes started on Monday, has said it is not looking to online courses to bridge the gap in any substantial way for most of its 10,000 or more Chinese students who are unable to get to Australia.

UNSW vice-chancellor Ian Jacobs said last week that the university had “explored” the online option and found there were some existing courses applicable to the affected Chinese students that were already available online. He said the students would be able to access these.

“But it’s a small proportion today of the total number of ­courses that we have. We explored rapidly providing more. But we decided that what we are about is providing top-quality education,” Professor Jacobs said. “In the end, although it could be convenient to try to accelerate some of that, we’re not going to compromise the quality of our education because we don’t need to.”

Instead, UNSW has accepted that the stranded Chinese are more likely to defer their first term studies and return in second term in June. Because of UNSW’s three-term system, it can welcome back affected Chinese students earlier than most Australian universities, which use a two-semester system.

Professor Jacobs has said he is also relying on the flexibility of the three-term system, which already allows students the possibility of one free term in a three-year degree, to help students stranded in China to still graduate on time.

However, other universities are relying on online courses to deliver to stranded Chinese students for the first few weeks of the study year or hope to deliver the full first semester online.

Three universities that specialise in online education have ­offered help to those not geared up to easily convert to online delivery. Central Queensland University and the universities of Southern Queensland and New England are willing to accommodate students enrolled elsewhere in online courses that fit into their existing study programs.

In the case of USQ, a 25 per cent fee discount is included, but in all cases the financial and academic accreditation aspects of the schemes are not finalised.

CQU vice-chancellor Nick Klomp said he had written to some universities and heard back from most, which were grateful for “the show of support and collegiality”, but there were no confirmed co-delivery arrangements.

“We have thoroughly investigated our online delivery infrastructure and are well-placed to deliver units to students in mainland China,” Professor Klomp said.

A UNE spokeswoman said it was in discussions with other NSW universities following a statewide teleconference last week between deputy vice-chancellors (academic), but it was too early to gauge “the level of interaction or volume of students”. Courses that would fit with the ­arrangement include business, ­accounting, law, IT, nursing and education.

USQ vice-chancellor Geraldine Mackenzie said that because online learning was not culturally popular with Chinese students, the numbers who took up the offer would be very low. “They would have to get permission from their university to do it,” she said.

Swinburne University of Technology deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Duncan Bentley said a key question for universities ­developing online courses for ­Chinese students was how to give students a rich learning experience.

It was a matter of “how we get the rich capability of our offering to be able to operate seamlessly at a fast enough speed in China, because we’ve got to remember that many of the students might be in regional areas in Mongolia or further reaches of China,” he said.