IDP Connect has released research this week that surveyed 21,128 respondents from across the globe representing 108 countries. Data was collected in February and March of this year.
Emerging Futures 3 Source Market Profiles: A Deep Dive looks closely at the student priorities, destination choice, student profile and financial situation of students from the Philippines, Nigeria, China, Vietnam, and India.
Securing Accommodation firmly on the minds of Chinese Students
As optimism for a great China return builds via visa lodgements data (TKN 23/8/23) this report presents a key metric from Chinese students that can’t be ignored – a focus on accommodation.
According to the report, remembering the data was collected earlier this year, Chinese students surveyed say they “place strong emphasis on finding accommodation, with 64% saying they want to secure lodgings prior to leaving their home country, whilst a further 72% said they wouldn’t travel at all unless they’d first secured accommodation.”
22 per cent said they would reassess study options if no accommodation but still travel and 5 per cent said they would keep their current study plans and travel without accommodation.
If this doesn’t make Vice Chancellors and Heads of Colleges sit up and pay attention to looming issues, this Koala doesn’t know what will.
The report goes on to state:
“This may hamper the recruiting efforts of APAC institutions, especially given the severe housing shortage currently disrupting the Australian market. The Chinese Government’s snap decision to ban online studies for overseas degrees in January 2023, which led to an accommodation scramble, means there are now even fewer incentives for Chinese students to pursue studies in Australia.
“To reverse this trend, institutions must work with state and federal governments to facilitate the construction of more student accommodation. Considering 45% of Chinese respondents planned to live on campus – compared with only 21% who intended to live in private accommodation – such endeavors may prove fruitful in incentivising this massive demographic to pursue their studies in Australia.”
With no end in sight for accommodation tensions, as stated previously, watch this space. The intake in early 2024 may well be a telling one.
Report #4 in the series is due to be released on Wednesday, 11 October. It will incorporate data from August of this year, it will be interesting to see if these trends have remained or altered.
The report can be downloaded from IDP Connect here.
