"All agents [in China] are fed up with our current government's attitude to migration," said Mr Findley, who has just attended this month's Beijing International Education Expo. China is Australia's biggest market.

"Everyone knows students come to Australia for the prospect of migration - everyone, that is, with the exception of the Labor Party and their trade union advisers."

Mr Findley, an education and migration agent who represents a range of providers and spends 50 per cent of his time on the road in China, said other reasons for the desertion of brand Australia were the exchange rate, perceived value for money, less attractive commissions for agents and the greater ease of securing visas to the US and Britain.

"Australian institutions increase fees every year, which is seen as price gouging," he said.

"In China, the publicity given to [alleged] gouging tactics of BHP Billiton and Rio in iron ore negotiations ensures that we are tarred with the same brush - Aussies are now seen as scurrilous, greedy suppliers."

He said the US F1 and British Tier 4 student visas were regarded as easier to get than Australia's 573 student visa.

"Australia is seen as second rate in the global education stakes. We get the student business because the students see a pathway to migration."

That pathway has been made much narrower following staggered reforms that the export education industry has criticised as poorly managed.

Mr Findley said all the agency sales staff he had met in Beijing were trying to get into their company's US department.

"The best recruiters are deserting Australia. All agencies, including [Australia's biggest education broker] IDP, promote the US on their websites. These days, most make the US their headline offering, many are relegating Australia to third, or fourth behind New Zealand. Australia was usually the headline."

An IDP spokesman said it did not promote the US ahead of Australia. "Australia is the main part of our business and will remain so. By offering the US as a destination, as well as Australia, we reach a far larger pool of students interested in international education," the spokesman said.

Tomorrow, Austrade formally takes over from the federal education department the job of marketing education overseas.

Although the offshore Australian Education Centres are to close, Austrade has appointed Adelaide University's Eliza Chui as trade commissioner (education) for the northeast Asia region.

Jane Wallis, a Mandarin-speaker who has worked for Deloitte and PwC in China, will be the new trade commissioner (education) in China.

An Austrade spokesman said the China market was holding up well. "The number of Chinese student commencements in Australia's higher education sector grew by 25 per cent in the year to April 2010," he said.

However, at the end of April this newspaper reported a bleak outlook.

Thomas Wang, of education agent China Star in Beijing, said: "Some universities are expecting a fall of 20 to 30 per cent. I think that's quite optimistic - I think there will be a fall of 50 per cent for some universities."