SYDNEY: Australia is preparing for the arrival of thousands of Chinese students, the education minister said on Monday (Jan 30), days after China’s education ministry warned students enrolled overseas that online learning would no longer be recognised.
Australia’s education sector, which generated A$39 billion (US$27.66 billion) in export earnings before the pandemic, has strong ties to China, with roughly 150,000 nationals enrolled in Australian universities. Tens of thousands remain offshore after pandemic restrictions and strained diplomatic relations led many to return home.
But with three weeks to go before Australian universities start, the Chinese Ministry of Education’s Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) said on Saturday it would no longer recognise overseas degrees obtained via online learning and urged students to return to overseas campuses as soon as possible.
“At present, the borders of major destinations for international study have reopened, and foreign (overseas) colleges and universities have fully resumed offline teaching,” it said in a statement.
China dropped nearly all of its COVID-19 curbs in December, leading to a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths as Beijing shifted focus to salvage a faltering economy.
The normalising of educational ties comes weeks after Chinese officials relaxed import bans on Australian coal as both countries work to improve diplomatic relations after more than two years of Chinese trade sanctions that have frozen trade in barley, coal and wine and other goods and services.
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