Australia reopened its borders to skilled workers and international students on Wednesday, nearly two years after closing them due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a surge in the number of international students returning to the country is not expected given increasing concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant in many countries and regions across the world.
International students from China who have been fully inoculated with Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, which have been approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration, can enter the country from Wednesday without needing a travel exemption.
However, Omicron cases are surging overseas including in Australia, which has sparked anxiety among students.
Some Chinese students said that they would wait and see how the pandemic develops in the coming days before deciding whether to go back to Australia, while some said they have already purchased flight tickets to Australia due to their academic arrangements.
International education expert Peter Hurley from Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute was quoted by the report as saying that there would be far fewer international students in Australia in 2022 than before the pandemic. The mention rate of Australia on the list of top destinations for Chinese international students dropped 5 percentage points in 2021.
