Did China Ban Online Education?

Western media are reporting that China has banned online learning but once again, they’re wrong

According to Australian news sources, 40,000 Chinese students are being forced to rush back to Australia incurring many thousands of dollars in costs, face difficult times finding accommodation and it’s all China’s fault.

Starting with the premise that, according to many media outlets, this is a bad thing, let’s look at why they are wrong and how the Australian media has chosen, once again, to mislead the Australian public into thinking the government of China are the bad guys and doing this for all the wrong reasons.

The original story isn’t widely known about in China, it affects very few people and isn’t receiving wide attention here. The 40,000 or so people, who are normally students in Australia, have been studying online, at home in China, during the Covid Pandemic. That is the only aspect of the story that media has reported accurately.

What makes these misleading is that this announcement wasn’t an edict, mandate or a ban, it was simply a revert back to normal policy — and, although there are some students who are inconvenienced by the timing, it’s only three weeks to the start of university and they need to arrange visa, transport and accommodation in that time frame. They are however, simply going back to what they had signed up, paid in advance for and eagerly anticipated a couple of years ago.

What has changed is that Australian universities which, over the period of Covid, offered their courses online, have now ceased offering that option. These universities are either not accredited to offer online courses or, if they are, the courses selected were not accredited to be offered online. Any student who has signed up for an online course, would be totally unaffected, and probably even oblivious to this announcement.

Students who, because of a global pandemic, returned to their homes and studied online are now in a position to resume their proper places and this is recognised. Their course requires their presence in order to qualify and, although for a period of time, the Universities and Chinese authorities accepted a compromise to protect the health and safety of overseas students, that situation is no longer necessary.

Despite some media claims, there are no additional cost involved, students paid full fees for their courses and received, in some cases, online teaching. They have, if they returned home, saved many thousands of dollars in rental, accommodation, health insurance and other living expenses. These outgoings are always known costs in pursuing overseas education, they are not additional.

Furthermore, this is nothing at all to do and bears no relation to any improvements in the relationship between China and the Labor government of Australia, although there is little doubt that both parties would like to see those improvements come to fruition. This announcement is a return to a normal policy so that students can resume their normal campus life and hopefully benefit from the experience.

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