There is a blind spot on gender across the international education sector, says Dr Lehmann, even though women now made up 49 per cent of all enrolments.Not only do the countries that send more women than men send more students overall, but female numbers remained more stable during the pandemic, says a“Countries that send more women than men to Australia were more stable overall during the first year of the pandemic than male-dominant countries,” the report notes.
Her only real knowledge of Australia before arriving as a 16-year-old was her childhood obsession with naturalist and TV star Steve Irwin. With the backing of her parents, especially her mother who is a nurse turned lawyer, Ms Soltanpour said that safety and security were big factors in choosing a city in which to live, and rankings and reputation influenced her choice for Adelaide University.