Chinese Students Abroad in the Time of Pandemic: An Australian View

Australia provides an ideal case study for an examination of the behaviour and decision-making of Chinese students overseas during a period of global crisis. International education was Australia's fourthlargest export in the 2019-2020 financial year. According to data from the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment, the number of international students in Australia increased from 153,372 in 2000 to 876,399 in 2019. 1 That year, Australian universities earned more than AU$10 billion in international student tuition fees -a record 27 percent of their revenue. 2 As Professor Andrew Norton from The Australian National University summarised, international students 'filled the gap' during the previous two decades, as Commonwealth funding for higher education continuously dropped. 3 In the 2019 calendar year alone, international education contributed over $40 billion to the Australian economy. 4 During their study in Australia, many international students are also consumers and tourists. 5 They also make valuable intangible contributions, by increasing ethnic, social, and cultural diversity within and beyond Australian university campuses.