40% of state’s student fees come from three nations – Report

New South Wales universities receive 40% of their total student fees from just three overseas countries, the latest auditor general’s report has found, posing a “concentration risk” for the sector amid an anticipated cap on international students, writes Caitlin Cassidy for The Guardian.

The report, released on Wednesday 12 June, showed the revenue stream from international students returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, with a 12% increase in overseas enrolments on the previous year to 166,178.

Overseas students contributed AU$3.4 billion (US$2.2 billion) to course fees in 2023, an AU$325.5 million increase on 2022, with students from China, India and Nepal comprising AU$2.5 billion alone. Total fees generated from those three nations are close to the AU$2.7 billion received from Australia’s domestic students, and comprises 71.7% of revenue from all overseas students.
Full report on The Guardian site