Travel ban means that Australia loses international PhD students

The COVID travel ban has interrupted the arrival of international PhD students at Australian universities, with serious consequences for research.

Just over a year ago, Australian universities began to sense that the closure of Australia’s international borders may impact the arrival of international students. In the weeks and months that followed, those fears were realised. Budgets and plans were reworked, torn up and reworked again. Across the year, the consequences of the estimated 210,000 fewer international students became increasingly apparent.

While there is no doubt that international students bring many benefits to both Australia and our universities, the loss of revenue has been the most immediate impact. A shortfall of several billion of student fee income from these students resulted in nearly all Australian universities having to review all expenditure, including staffing with an estimated 17,000 staff losing their job.

Twelve months on, for the near future, the return of international students in historical numbers looks unlikely. Even with vaccine rollout it seems unlikely that international travel and borders will freely open for the remainder of 2021.

There has been extensive analysis and commentary on the export value of higher education and the business models of Australian universities that has seemingly been heavily reliant on this fee income to supplement public funding and cross-subsidise research. This discussion has largely focused on the impact of large numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students.

There is however a cohort of international students that has not received the attention it deserves. Smaller in number, but highly important, they are international students choosing to undertake higher degrees by research in Australia.

It is not only the volume of these PhD students that marks them out as distinct from their undergraduate and postgraduate by course coursework peers. While vastly fewer, these students by and large do not represent an income source to universities, with most receiving both fee-waiver scholarships and living allowance scholarships.

Rather, the great value of these international students lies in the talent and academic excellence they bring to Australian universities and the innovative, cutting edge research they advance during their studies.

These students are attracted to Australia for the intellectual opportunities available. Many of these students could complete their PhDs at home or in other countries. They choose Australia because of our research environment and for the chance to work with leading scholars in their field.

Given the relatively low number of scholarships available, competition is fierce and research excellence in candidates assured.

For the last twelve months, only a handful of international higher degree by research students have been able to arrive in Australia to commence their studies. This has resulted in a gap Australian universities have been scrambling to fill – not an income gap, but an intellectual gap and key driver of discovery and innovation.

Over the course of their PhD, these international students are at the coal face of research occurring across all disciplines. In labs and libraries, with data from non-human species and humans to cutting edge physics and chemistry and more, developing new technologies and theories, PhD students are the engine room in contributing new knowledge. They make Australian universities competitive on the global stage of research.

Within higher degrees by research, international and domestic students complement each other and embark on collaborations that will last well beyond their period of study. These international connections will build Australian research capacity well after these international students return home or take up academic positions across the world. Working alongside international students, enhances the research and development of domestic students. International students completing their PhDs in Australia are good for our students and our country.

Throughout all of 2020 and now likely to be throughout 2021, universities, such as Deakin University have had to find new ways of maintaining our relationships with these yet-to-commence students so they do not take up study opportunities in other countries.

Initially, Deakin delayed their commencement date to later in 2020 before deferring nearly 150 offers of enrolment for these international students to the middle of 2021. We are now having to decide whether we can defer them again for another 12 months. And even if we do, will they be prepared to wait another year and all the uncertainty this entails?

There are multiple external legislative and internal policy obligations Deakin University (and other Australian universities) have towards PhD students. In addition to the normal provision of academic and support services required for all our students, we must be able to provide PhD students (international and domestic) with high quality supervision and access to the cutting edge and essential facilities and equipment required for their research projects.

While online learning has successfully been used for undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students overseas, this is not viable for offshore students undertaking their PhD.

Deakin has worked with partner universities in establishing cotutelle arrangements or hosting agreements with international partners. But such partnerships normally require establishing long-term relationships and a track record of exchange of students and staff. And where such partnerships exist, pragmatic activities such as the payment of scholarship allowances offshore is difficult. There is no easy way to allow international students offshore to begin their PhD studies as we have been able to do, via online learning with undergraduate and postgraduate by coursework students.

The pipeline impact of losing international PhD students for a second full year will be significant for Australian universities. We may not be able to quantify it as easily as foregone student income fees, but the loss of research excellence and innovation for an extended period is likely to have longer-lasting impact for our international research standing and on the innovation needed to help Australia’s economy and society recover and transform for the better. This is numerically a relatively small cohort and, we would argue, one that needs special consideration once it becomes possible for quarantine pathways to open for international students.

Matthew Clarke is Alfred Deakin Professor and pro vice-chancellor (researcher development) at Deakin University.