Australia preparing for arrival of thousands of Chinese students

SYDNEY: Australia is preparing for the arrival of thousands of Chinese students, the education minister said on Monday after China's education ministry warned students that online learning would no longer be recognised.

Australia's education sector, which produced A $39 billion US $27.66 billion in export earnings before the pandemic, has strong ties to China, with more than 150,000 nationals enrolled in Australian universities. Tens of thousands remain offshore after strained diplomatic relations and pandemic restrictions caused many to return home.

With three weeks left before Australian universities start, the Chinese Ministry of Education's Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange CSCSE said on Saturday that it would no longer recognise overseas degrees via online learning and urged students to return to overseas campuses as soon as possible.

The borders of major destinations for international study have been reopened, and foreign overseas colleges and universities have 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 tried to salvage a faltering economy.

After more than two years of Chinese trade sanctions that have frozen trade in barley, coal and wine and other goods and services, the normalising of educational ties comes weeks after Chinese officials relaxed import bans on Australian coal.