Earlier this week, we learned that Australia’s largest university – Monash University – has delayed the start of on-campus classes by two weeks in a bid to give its Chinese students more time to enrol and to minimise the financial impact from the coronavirus:
Classes were scheduled to commence on March 2, however, in a statement the university said physical on-campus teaching would not commence until March 16. Online classes will commence on March 9.
Monash is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students.
“The novel coronavirus has created an unprecedented situation where some of our community of students and staff will not make it back in time from affected areas or isolation in time for the commencement of semester 1, 2020,” a statement on the Monash website said.
On Tuesday we learned that more than 4,000 Chinese students studying at Sydney University signed a petition demanding a delayed start to their semester:
The petition calls for the university to delay the start date of the upcoming semester for two weeks, pushing it back from February 24 to March 9…
It was organised on Chinese website WJX by Student Representative Council general secretary Abbey Shi, and quickly circulated through messaging service WeChat.
“I kept getting requests from students, asking me ‘what are we going to do with our studies?’ and I knew I had to start this petition,” Ms Shi said.
These events prompted Andrew Bolt to question whether it is fair to delay university courses for local Australian students:
We fund our universities for one thing above all – to teach young Australians. Yet our biggest university is delaying classes to suit Chinese students instead…
Yes, this is a nice gesture for the Chinese students. But why are Australian students losing out? Aren’t our universities really for them?
Yet this coronavirus shows how reliant our universities now are on Chinese students.
Those 100,000 stuck back in China – a massive number – still amount to just over half the Chinese at our universities, where they now make up around 10 per cent of all students.
The universities are desperate for them because of the fees they pay. Sydney University, for instance, earns more than $500 million a year from Chinese students, a fifth of its revenue…
Let me be clear. Chinese students help Australians ones. Their fees help to pay for our universities.
But what compromises are universities now making – or demanding Australian students make?
Many academics and students now accuse universities of letting in many foreign students with poor English. Worse, many stretched academics set more group assignments, where students with fluent English must inevitably carry students who struggle.
There are also concerns about our universities selling their independence to the Chinese dictatorship. For instance, 13 take China’s money to run Confucius Institutes, teaching Chinese culture.
To repeat. Taking in Chinese students – any foreign students – is good.
But this virus scare should remind us that Australian students must still come first.
It’s a fair point. Universities should exist first and foremost to educate the Australian population. And the interests of local students should always take precedence.
Chinese international students comprise around 11% of university enrolments across Australia:
Should our universities delay courses for the circa 6% of students stuck in China?
