Australia's top universities are experiencing a record number of enrollment by Chinese students, a year after Australia eased COVID restrictions. Experts say this not only boosts Australia's economy, but also strengthens people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. Greg Navarro explains.

When Australia reopened its borders to the rest of the world in 2022, there were questions about whether international students would return.

More than a year later, those questions have been answered.

PHIL HONEYWOOD CEO, International Education Association of Australia "It's really surprised all stakeholders in our industry that it has come back so quickly."

At Australia's top eight universities, they've come back in record numbers led by about 107,000 students from China.

VICKI THOMSON Chief Executive, Group of 8 Universities "So that is not an insignificant number of students and our next biggest market after that is India but there is a lot of distance between the Chinese market in Australia and the India student market."

"Being a student in Australia is where you can achieve a lot."

Merlin Wang came to the University of Adelaide in 2021 to study agricultural sciences.

MERLIN WANG University of Adelaide Student "So it is the land of opportunities with opportunities so the thing is if you work hard everybody is equal, and you've got a good opportunity to be successful."

International education in Australia is big business, and the country's top export service, generating an estimated $40 billion dollars.

GREG NAVARRO Sydney "In fact, Chinese students in particular in Australia spent $12 billion each year before the pandemic, and helped to significantly boost tourism revenue through visits from family members."

Industry experts say Chinese students studying in Australia also play another very important role in broadening the people to people links between the two countries.

PROF. HANS HENDRISCHKE Chinese Business and Management, University of Sydney "We literally are training tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands over longer periods of Chinese students, they go back, they will remember Australia. I think what we see over time is memories improve."

And the number of Chinese students has increased each year despite several challenges.

Those include Australia's high cost of living, housing shortage, and a strained diplomatic relationship between China and Australia that hit a low point two years ago.

VICKI THOMSON Chief Executive, Group of 8 Universities "Whilst there has been some fairly challenging geostrategic and geopolitical context between Australia and China, what has sustained the relationship has been those people to people links, and while it's often characterised as soft diplomacy, I would say that sometimes, particularly in the past, it is more than soft diplomacy, it has been the only diplomacy that's prevailed."

PROF. TIM HARCOURT Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney "There are 300 million middle class Chinese people – having an Australian degree is still a good thing in China so I think if you ask the parents what they'd like to do, they'd like to send their children to Australia."

And experts expect that trend to continue, despite increasing competition from other countries also hoping to attract students from such a lucrative market. Greg Navarro, CGTN, Sydney.