China’s UnionPay Provides Tuition Refunds To International Students Studying In Australia

Leading global payment services provider UnionPay International (UPI) announced in a press release on Friday (Aug. 27) that it is lending support to international students studying in Australia as part of a back-to-school program the company has launched.

The Shanghai-based Chinese financial services provider, a subsidiary of China UnionPay, has been running a campaign since July 16, offering students who are UPI cardholders a refund of AUD 68 for tuition payments over AUD 6,800 paid to Australian universities.

Students can access the “Australia Payment” service in the UnionPay App to make the one-time refund claim before the end of the campaign on Oct. 31. They will benefit from UPI’s automatic conversion using its official real-time exchange when paying tuition fees.

UPI explained the importance of this campaign to help international students who are unable to return to campus to attend lectures or who are stranded abroad, as it will encourage more students to pay online and stay safe as the pandemic continues.

Overall, the initiative has been hugely successful since going live in July, with the China UnionPay subsidiary recording a surge of 269 percent in transaction volume during the first two weeks alone.

Commenting on the initiative, Jian Jiangtao, head of UnionPay International South Pacific Branch, said the company is “happy to launch a refund campaign to encourage students to make their payments safer and more convenient,” in partnership with local finance institutes China Payments and BPAY.

UPI, which is one of the most widely accepted card brands in the world, partners with more than 2,400 institutions in 180 countries and regions. The company also partners with over 63 million merchants worldwide who accept UnionPay mobile payments, and has plans to extend partnerships with local institutes in Australia to help meet the needs of its cardholders.

Read more: PayPal, UnionPay Deal Expands Chinese Cross-Border Commerce

Last year, PYMNTS reported on a partnership between global payment processor PayPal and UPI to expand cross-border commerce for Chinese consumers who want to purchase products outside of China as well as non-Chinese consumers who want to buy from merchants in China.