Chinese and Australian relations have been in the media for a range of reasons lately, with reports claiming that China’s ruling party has been meddling in Australia’s media, university, political and legal systems. These stoushes have spilled over into trade discussions between the two nations across a numbers of industries – including international education.

With a record 232,000 Chinese citizens studying in Australia in 2017, a number which has grown by 54 per cent since 2013, Chinese students make up 28.9 per cent of all international enrolments. While the outlook is positive, this dominance by China has created concern within the education sector about the potential financial risk should the market experience a downturn, or if, for example, the Chinese or Australian Governments decided to restrict the student flow into Australia. Charles Sturt University’s Professor Clive Hamilton even noted that if universities were a company, there would be serious questions asked of their CEO around their reliance on one ‘risky’ market.

There are, however, ways for the international education sector to diversify. With students studying in Australia coming from across the globe, education providers can move away from their reliance on China in three ways.

Scholarship schemes

With a plethora of scholarships available for students wanting to study in Australia, there are a number of ways to encourage student growth within both small and emerging markets. Many federal government scholarships, like the Australia Awards and Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships, are available to students studying across all degree levels, and for students coming from selected countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and the Middle East. In addition to this, institution-specific scholarships don’t often place restrictions on the country students originate from. By spreading awareness about these opportunities across additional markets, education providers can help grow their numbers across multiple locations.

Education roadshows

With international education being Australia’s third-largest export, many state and federal governments are running trade delegations and roadshows to showcase the quality of Australia’s education providers and the value they can bring to international students. For the remainder of 2018 alone, Austrade has Future Unlimited education roadshows planned for countries including Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, Japan and Korea, and in many instances education providers are able to attend. Discovering these opportunities opens up a world of networking opportunities for leaders within the sector to get on the ground of emerging markets and engaging with students who may not have considered studying in Australia in the past.

Nurturing growing markets

In 2017, the number of students from Columbia, Sri Lanka, Spain, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia enrolled to study in Australia grew by double digits. After China, the four top nationalities for enrolments – India, Brazil, Nepal and Malaysia – made up 24.1 per cent of Australia’s enrolments in that same year. Education providers who target students from these countries are not only opening themselves up to a new revenue stream, but are also nurturing new relationships that could prove beneficial for Australia in the long run. In the same way that many education providers have previously targeted Chinese international students by rolling out campaigns on country-specific social media channels like Weibo and WeChat, the industry could look at how to reach students from other countries in a similar way.

Even if tensions between Australia and China do diminish, the diversification of Australia’s approach to international student recruitment can only be a good thing. By adopting a more holistic approach to student recruitment and a long term view to nurturing growing markets, Australia’s international education sector can ensure its long-term sustainability and success.

Mark Fletcher is CEO and co-founder of edtech company Cohort Go.