CANBERRA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Australia's top 10 universities are set to lose out on more than 1 billion Australian dollars in revenue as a result of the government's coronavirus travel ban.

The campus of the University of Sydney. (Photo: VCG)

According to an analysis by News Corp Australia, more than 60 percent of the 109,000 Chinese students enrolled at 10 elite Australian universities will not be able to enter the country in time for the academic year.
As a result, the Group of Eight (Go8) -- a coalition of eight of Australia's largest and most prestigious universities -- plus the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) are set to lose 1.2 billion Australian dollars (802 million U.S. dollars) in fees.
The University of Sydney is expected to be the hardest-hit, losing out on a projected 280 million Australian dollars as a result of 14,000 of its 21,000 enrolled Chinese students not being allowed into the country.
Australian National University (ANU), the second-best university in Australia according to the Times Higher Education global rankings, has sought to mitigate its potential losses by offering free online courses to enrolled students stuck in China through a "hardship scholar."
Brian Schmidt, vice-chancellor of ANU, told News Corp that the Canberra-based institution was taking "a student-first approach" to the crisis.
"The number one goal is to keep as many of our students as possible engaged with their learning and our community," he said.
According to a study released by the Centre for Independent Studies, a libertarian think tank, on Wednesday, Chinese enrollments in Australian universities have increased six-fold since 2002 to 277,000 in 2019.
Chinese students make up 39 percent of international higher education enrollments in Australia.
"The epidemic has hit at the worst possible time from the standpoint of university enrollments; students may miss an entire semester while many may never commence them at all," study author Salvatore Babones said.
"Taxpayers are likely to be called on to rescue their universities from the most dire financial consequences of the coronavirus epidemic, and perhaps to rescue many private companies as well."