Offshore delivery of Australian higher education courses

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

Offshore students by location (2019-2023)
Month 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
China 12906 18386 34604 34668 28810
Singapore 24672 23756 21605 21013 21475
Malaysia 17860 17042 16055 14858 14714
Vietnam 7368 9582 13065 15196 16884
UAE 5125 4972 5582 5678 6093
Other 17712 19160 32234 29682 27289

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.