Aspiring students are still keen to study in another country- but their patience isn’t endless

IDP Education surveyed 6900 students from (unspecified) countries who have offers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States.

Many of them are good to go, for now, with 31 per cent prepared to start classes on-line.  But the strongest preference is to defer to January and then start in-person. And 40 per cent of the sample of people who have deferred or are now considering it, will wait for six months.

Demand for Australia “remains strong” IDP’s analysis states, but competition will pick-up if other providers open their borders in January. Canada is most likely to win demand moving from other markets, if it opens classes in September/October and has capacity in January. The US is in way worse shape, with the survey sample unimpressed with its response to COVID-19.

The survey did not ask prospective students about the Australian Government’s barring in-country internationals from welfare support. Although this may not matter as much given the Canadian federal government has just excluded international students from an emergency allowance for May-September, which compensates locals for missing out on summer jobs. It won’t make any difference to students now looking where to study but just like here, it sends a signal.

Scroll down for Dirk Mulder’s comments on the state of the wait