Over 60 per cent of Chinese students with an Australian visa for higher education are outside the country

The Department of Home Affairs reports that when the boom-lowered Saturday 97 000 China-resident higher education student visa holders were outside Australia, 62 per cent of the total.  Another 1700 postgrads from China are not here yet.

The figure for all education-categories was 106 000, or 56 per cent overall. Some 35 per cent of Chinese postgrads are effected and 20 per cent of VET students.

Yesterday individual universities were reporting numbers in-line with the federal figures, ranging from 20 per cent of Chinese students here already to 50-60 per cent.