Singapore, Malaysia universities see uptick in Chinese student interest amid pandemic

Chinese students who have traditionally aimed for university places in the United States, Britain and Australia are now looking towards Asia, particularly the likes of Singapore and Malaysia, in light of global coronavirus travel restrictions and Beijing's worsening diplomatic relations with Western countries.

However, experts say this may not be a long-term trend, while some international students are also wary about applying to universities during the Covid-19 pandemic as they would rather not have online lessons.

After This Week in Asia contacted 14 universities in Singapore and Malaysia, three of the five institutions that responded " Curtin Singapore, the University of Malaya and the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) " cited an increase in applications from Chinese students.

Singapore's Yale-NUS College and Kaplan University Singapore said they had not seen a rise in such applications.

Curtin Singapore received 55 per cent more applications for their July intake compared with the same period last year, while Malaysia's University of Malaya saw a 33 per cent increase in undergraduate applications and a 130 per cent increase for postgraduate studies.

Fangzhou Jiang, the chief executive officer of university admissions consultancy Crimson Education China, said the travel restrictions imposed in the US prompted Chinese families to "consider alternatives to preparing solely for US university opportunities".

Jiang said these students might wish to pursue jobs in the countries they graduated in, and wanted to avoid any interruptions to their education that might arise from difficulties in acquiring a visa or employability.

The uncertainty brought about by the coronavirus pandemic would only upend students' plans in the short term, some experts said. Jason Tan, associate professor in the policy, curriculum and leadership department at the National Institute of Education at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said there was a "huge, pent-up demand for an overseas degree" and the virus was unlikely to prevent students from pursuing their degree overseas.

Tan said although education hubs like Singapore and Malaysia might see a rise in the number of Chinese students, the trend was unlikely to persist after a vaccine for the virus was discovered as universities in the US and Britain were still better known.

US President Donald Trump says Chinese students suspected of conducting research on behalf of government agencies will have their visas suspended. Photo: Reuters

China is the world's largest source of international students, with more than 662,000 students looking to continue their education abroad in 2018, according to statistics from the country's Ministry of Education.

Data from the Institute of International Education (IIE) shows that Chinese students also made up the largest proportion of international students in the US, accounting for a third of the 1.1 million overseas students in the 2018-19 academic year.

However, American universities are bracing for a drop in these numbers after the administration of US President Donald Trump said Chinese students suspected of conducting research on behalf of government agencies would have their visas suspended, while some overseas students have expressed concerns over the effects of escalating US-China tensions and the protests sweeping the country amid the Black Lives Matter movement.

Trump had earlier imposed new in-person requirements for classes, despite many universities moving classes online amid the Covid-19 pandemic, only to rescind the order after protests and legal threats from American tertiary institutions. There are more than 3.78 million confirmed cases in the US, along with over 140,00 deaths.

Overseas students contributed US$44.7 billion to the US economy in 2018-19, according to the IIE.

Chinese students have also cited the effects of Covid-19 in Britain " which has reported around 300,000 cases and more than 45,000 deaths " as a reason they are afraid to study there, the BBC reported last week.

As such, British universities are anticipating financial losses if such fears cause a drop in the current 120,000 Chinese students there, with some forecasting cancellations of up to 61 per cent. Another factor is Beijing's warning that British businesses could be "in the firing line" after London banned Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from the nation's 5G network.

Chinese students are also Britain's largest cohort of overseas students, contributing some £4 billion (US$5 billion) every year in tuition fees, accommodation and other spending, the British state broadcaster reported.

Overseas students contributed US$44.7 billion to the US economy in 2018-19. Photo: AP

In Australia, tensions between Beijing and Canberra have seeped into the Australian education sector.

China advised citizens against travelling there after Australia backed the call for an independent virus inquiry, while there have been reports of increased incidences of racism towards people of Asian descent during the pandemic.

There are some 150,000 Chinese nationals enrolled at Australian universities, according to a 2017 report from an Australian think tank, where they make up about 11 per cent of the student population. The international education sector contributed about A$35 billion (US$23.5 billion) to Australia's economy last year, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Curtin University vice-chancellor professor Deborah Terry said while early indications reflected an increase in the number of applications from Chinese students to Curtin's Australian campuses, "it is too early to speculate on the likely number of acceptances".

But the lack of in-person classes, as the result of social-distancing measures, remains a strong deterrent for prospective international students.

A study conducted by a division of international education agency IDP Education found that 69 per cent of the 6,900 international students surveyed intended to commence their studies as planned. However, of the students who indicated they would rather defer their studies instead of learning online, 69 per cent said they believed such learning lacked international exposure and 47 per cent were concerned about the standard of online teaching.

"One of the motivations for international students to study overseas is to experience a different culture and it's often seen as a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity," Terry said. "Studying remotely online takes away the social aspect of the university experience, and so we understand that many students would prefer to wait for face-to-face teaching to resume. We also acknowledge that studying fully online can be challenging for some."

Echoing her sentiments, Tan from Singapore's National Institute of Education said: "It is a lot of money spent [on tuition fees] and it does not make sense to pay so much if you are not going to have face-to-face classes."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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