The bimonthly guide to all things International Education

December 2020

Volume 6

Welcome to the sixth edition of The Source - The Lygon Group’s regular newsletter filled with insight and analysis.

For detail of what each edition will bring you, visit our first issue of The Source here.

In this edition:

The Big Picture: 

• Reflection of 2020

• What's to come in 2021

A Closer Look at China: 

• China’s perceptions of other countries places Australia in ambiguous position

• Hong Kong universities head north

In Case you Missed It: 

• Additional Temporary Graduate Visas for regional students

• Biden likely to make major speech welcoming international students

• US Department of Homeland Security will continue to permit remote classes

What we’re Thinking About: 

• TLG media and events

• The Source Pod - Episode 5

• Shoes off podcast

Get in touch to talk about how we can help you and your organisation.

THE BIG PICTURE

2020 is drawing to a close. It has been a brutal year for international education people, and students. But it has also been a year in which the international education sector in Australia demonstrated its resilience, once again.

We’ve been with you this year as you’ve innovated, persisted, turned up, supported students and prospects, worked from home, and found new ways of getting through each day.

Tough as 2020 has been, international education has won important new allies in our communities and right across the economy. This is something to celebrate: it’s worth remembering that it wasn’t so very long ago – just cast your minds back to the beginning of 2019 – that international education was being blamed for clogging up our cities and our public transport.

Like you, in 2020 we’ve remained hopeful about the future of international education in Australia and around the world.

2021 will be different. For international students - current and prospective - it will be a year of choices and recovery. For some it will mean future study plans can start, for others it will mean rebuilding after a year of distance, isolation, and online study.

For international education people it will be a year of hope, energy, optimism and some frustration that everything is taking so long to get back to normal. You’ll be working hard to welcome international students back, while supporting the students who have been impacted by the pandemic. It will be another year of innovation as providers explore new delivery modes, new ways of supporting students, and new ways of doing the business of international education.

It will be a year of intense competition: everyone is eager to welcome international students back. We know how competitive the UK and Canada are. The USA will be back in the game: the impact of November’s election shifted sentiment towards the US overnight, and when the Biden-Harris administration gets through the myriad challenges of the first 100 days we can expect America to strongly signal that international education is open for business once again.

And, of course, Australia will signal that it is re-opening to international students. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us to get us back into a competitive position. But as we’ve all shown in 2020, we’re up for hard work.

We’re taking a break from newslettering over the summer. The next edition of The Source will be in your in-boxes in February.

For our southern hemisphere readers, have a great summer and stay safe and well, and for our northern hemisphere readers, please get through this winter safe and well. See you all in 2021. Possibly even at an international education conference - let’s hope that’s not too much wishful thinking.

A CLOSER LOOK AT CHINA

China’s perceptions of other countries places Australia in ambiguous position

A survey of 1064 Chinese adults right before the US presidential election found Chinese public opinion on Australia is finely poised between favourable and unfavourable. The Diplomat’s survey asked about feelings towards 14 countries finding a large increase from a previously known level of negativity towards the United States. Australia fared slightly better than the US and Japan, and around the same level of favourability as Canada.

Hong Kong universities head north

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is building a ‘sustainable, smart campus’, in Guangzhou and will begin enrolment in September 2022 after being approved last year by the Ministry of Education. The campus is established as a joint project with HKUST, the Guangzhou government and Guangzhou University. It is not the only Hong Kong institution heading north to neighbouring Guangzhou province. Several of the special administrative region’s universities are doing the same, lured by tax and land incentives offered by the governments of cities including Foshan, Donguan and Zhaoqing.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Additional Temporary Graduate Visas for regional students

The Department of Home Affairs has announced that temporary graduate visa holders who have graduated from a regional educational institution and have lived in regional Australia on their first Temporary Graduate Visa will be eligible for a second visa. Eligible visa holders will be required to remain in a regional area for the duration of the second visa. The new rule will be implemented from next year.

Biden likely to make major speech welcoming international students

The US President-elect, Joe Biden is likely to make a major speech welcoming international students to the US as part of plans to reinvigorate international education there, according to former UN ambassador Samantha Power. Power claims that Biden should emphasize his administrations commitment to international students and reinstate the Homeland Security Academic Advisory Council, a group of university presidents and educational experts that previously advised the Department of Homeland Security on its policies’ impact on foreign students, teaching and academic research.

US Department of Homeland Security will continue to permit remote classes

The US Department of Homeland Security has said that it will continue to permit international students to take remote or hybrid classes for the spring semester. A longstanding policy restricts student-visa holders to just a single online course a semester. Other COVID-related provisions, such as relaxation of the rule that states that students can be outside the US for no more than five months while maintaining active visa status, will also be extended. The announcement is in response to three dozen higher education associations writing to the department asking that the flexibility to extend remote study by extended. New international students – those who weren’t already enrolled in an American college when the pandemic began in March – aren’t extended the same flexibility. If their courses are wholly online, they won’t be permitted to enter the US.

WHAT WE ARE THINKING

This month we have participated in a range of events including the ISANA 2020 OnAir conference, China and Higher Education 2020 conference hosted by The University of Manchester and the Council for International Students Australia’s Offshore Students Forum. Get in touch for recordings and copies of our presentations.

Episode 5 of our podcast series - The Source Pod - we talk all about India. We speak with Lakshimi Iyer of Sanaam S4 and Tanya Spisbah of the Australia India Institute about India’s new National Education Plan and its implications for international education in Australia. 

And if you are up-to-date with our podcast series - The Source Pod - take a listen to Series 3, Episode 2 of the award-winning Shoes Off Podcast. This episode is titled ‘Past, Present, Future: How COVID-10 has affected international students and includes TLG insight and analysis.

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Missed an earlier issue? Catch up here