Sydney university students
(Image: AAP/Paul Miller)

Australia’s troubled international student market is beginning to take shape for 2021 and, whichever way you look at it, it's disastrous.

Just six short months ago, this sector was worth a bulked up $35 billion -- about two-thirds of which is tuition. Now, industry insiders say that globally the market is down by 75%. Given the vicissitudes of the pandemic, this could get worse at any time.

Education agents working in Asia told Crikey, “apart from China, the entire international student market has collapsed”. This includes the most recently promising markets in Latin America where COVID has been particularly bad.