The first event will be held in October and has been designed to promote both Australia and New Zealand as study destinations.

“We wanted to provide a forum for Chinese students to get a real feel for what an ANZ study experience can look like”

The fair is also looking to provide give institutions in the region the opportunity to connect directly with Chinese international students in a virtual setting.

“We have created Studyorbis as a direct response to the current pandemic and the need for universities to replace their offline recruitment channels with viable online alternatives,” said Sinorbis CEO, Nicolas Chu.

“This can be challenging to do in China since most of the technology you would normally use to run this type of event won’t work reliably within the constraints of Chinese internet regulation.”

The Studyorbis fair will be hosted on the Sinorbis platform which has been developed to overcome the technical challenges of creating and managing a digital presence in China.

Through the fair, universities will have the opportunity to engage with Chinese students via one-on-one chats and video meetings.

In addition, Studyorbis will feature a small conference program to address topics of interest to Chinese international students such as what to expect from their study experience in the region and how to avoid common mistakes in the application process.

The fair and participating institutions will further be promoted to students in China through extensive WeChat content marketing and paid media program.

“In the current strained political environment, we felt strongly that our event needed to address more than just provide universities with the opportunity to interact with potential students,” said Chu.

“We wanted to provide a forum for Chinese students to get a real feel for what an ANZ study experience can look like.”

China remains the largest source country for international students in the US, UK, Canada and Australia and a lack of engagement plan for this market could lead to major enrolment drops for future intake periods.

While the first event is limited to institutions in Australia and New Zealand, Sinorbis is looking to launch similar events for other regions in the future.