This page contains data for the offshore delivery of Australian higher education courses in 2023.
On this page:
Many students around the world study Australian higher education courses without coming to Australia.
For an example, an Australian university may have campuses in one or more countries outside Australia or deliver courses through partnership arrangements with foreign institutions, or directly deliver courses online. The data sourced from the Australian Higher Education Statistics Collection is limited to students in courses recognised in the Australian Qualifications Framework.
Overseas higher education enrolments
524,514
0.5% increased from 2019
17% increased from 2022
Offshore enrolments
115,265
22% of overseas students studying Australian higher education courses offshore
5% decrease from 2022
Onshore enrolments
409,249
25% increase from 2022
Course delivery to offshore students
43,599
Students studying at
offshore campuses
3% increase from 2022
58,791
Students studying in offshore partnerships and/or other programs
3% increase from 2022
12,875
Students studying in
distance education
41% decrease from 2022
| Month | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 12906 | 18386 | 34604 | 38643 | 32704 |
| Singapore | 24672 | 23756 | 21605 | 18138 | 17216 |
| Malaysia | 17860 | 17042 | 16055 | 13537 | 13305 |
| Vietnam | 7368 | 9582 | 13065 | 15594 | 17372 |
| UAE | 5125 | 4972 | 5844 | 4891 | 5713 |
| Other | 17712 | 19160 | 31972 | 30292 | 28955 |
Considerations for interpreting this data
- Overseas student data is published annually by the higher education student data collection reported by all higher education providers.
- The data include all HE institutions that have been approved under the Higher Education Support ACT 2003 (HESA).
- The top countries represent study locations but not necessarily the nationalities of those students. For example, about 22 per cent of students undertaking Australian university programs in Singapore were not permanent residents of Singapore.
- An error was identified in data from the University of Sydney after it had been finalised for publication. The statistics on this page include the overstated the number of students studying offshore reported in error.