Look who's back, back again

International students are flocking back to Australia, and the university sector is Jonah Hill screaming-meme excited. 

International students are flocking back to Australia, and the university sector is Jonah Hill-meme excited. 

In a sign of things returning to normal (don’t say it too loudly, a new Covid strain might hear you), new international student enrolments have almost returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Federal Education Department data shows 55,641 international students started a course in January and February, not far behind the 57,927 students who commenced in 2019.

That is an 85 per cent jump on last year, even excluding the late March starters.

Many of the newcomers (20,953) were Chinese students, representing a 60 per cent jump on last year. Indian student numbers were up 155 per cent on last year. 

“(It’s) a welcome morale boost for our beleaguered international education sector,” International Education Association chief executive Phil Honeywood said.

Almost all these new arrivals studied at Group of Eight universities - “research-intensive universities” the University of Melbourne, Australian National University, University of Sydney, the University of Queensland, the University of WA, the University of Adelaide, Monash University and UNSW.

They are studying management and commerce (30.9%), IT (14.2%), health (11.2%) and society and culture (10.8%) at university.

At TAFE, half the international students were studying management and commerce (49.9%), and a smaller portion were studying food and hospitality services (17.8%).

Of all the international students enrolled in Australian studies in 2022, 20 per cent were living abroad, mostly in China and India.