Response to report on Chinese international students

We are a $2.5 billion institution that teaches students from around 140 countries and collaborates on research all over the world.

We’re proud of the contribution our international students make to the academic and cultural life of the University, including our students from China.

We believe international students serve a key role in Australia’s foreign policy agenda. Australia and the world require graduates who are not just technically competent but who can become the leaders our societies need – global citizens. It’s important our students live, work and study with people from across the globe as they will have to work with people across different countries and cultures.

Given China’s population, location within our region and ongoing strong growth in demand for high quality international education we anticipate continuing to attract Chinese students.

We appreciate diversification of income is important for any large organisation which is why we have an income diversification strategy. We’ve already seen an increase in students from the USA, UK and Canada and we’re working to increase the number of our students from India and Southeast Asia.

We have among the highest university entry standards and English language requirements in Australia.

All international students, including our University of Sydney Foundation Program students, have the same academic entry requirement - ATAR and equivalent admission scores. 

The success (completion) rates for our students are high – 91.05 percent for our international students and 92.36 percent for our domestic students in 2018 – and we are currently ranked fifth in the world for graduate employability in the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2019.