UNSW expands payment options for Chinese students through Alipay integration with Novatti

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has expanded its international payment capabilities with the integration of Alipay into the MyUNSW Student Portal, enabled by Novatti and delivered through Xetta, its enterprise payment management platform.

UNSW is one of Australia’s largest and most internationally diverse universities, with 70,238 students enrolled in 2024, including 27,695 international students. Providing accessible and trusted payment options is therefore an important part of supporting its global student community.

The integration enables Chinese international students to pay fees directly within the university’s existing portal using Alipay, China’s most widely used digital payment platform. 

Andrew Fellowes, UNSW Director Treasury, Invest & Insurance, commented “For many of our Chinese students, Alipay is their primary and most trusted way to pay when they arrive in Australia. Providing Alipay as a direct payment option has removed unnecessary barriers and gives families greater confidence when managing tuition and other expenses from overseas. Novatti made the implementation seamless, enabling secure Alipay acceptance and integrating this capability into the Xetta platform. This ensures payments are automatically reconciled within our existing systems and delivers a better experience for our international students.”

The initiative reflects UNSW’s ongoing focus on improving the student experience while maintaining operational efficiency and financial governance.

Alan Smith, Director Xetta, said “the integration demonstrates how embedded payment infrastructure can support both user experience and operational outcomes. The solution is integrated within the Xetta environment, ensuring that payment data flows directly into UNSW’s financial systems.

Universities are increasingly looking for solutions that work within their existing systems rather than adding complexity. By integrating Alipay directly into the Xetta environment, UNSW can offer localised payment methods while maintaining a single, consistent financial workflow.”

Supporting students and families

For many Chinese students and their families, paying university expenses can be costly and complex. Traditional bank transfers often involve intermediary fees and exchange rate uncertainty. China’s USD 50,000 annual foreign exchange quota adds additional pressure when accessing funds from domestic accounts.

By enabling payment in local currency within a familiar digital wallet, the integrated solution provides:

• A streamlined mobile payment experience
• Real-time exchange rate transparency
• Reduced reliance on international wire transfers
• Lower exposure to third-party payment risks

Payments made through the education channel typically do not count towards China’s annual personal foreign exchange quota, providing additional flexibility for families managing international education expenses.

Through the Alipay integration on the Xetta platform, students can pay in Chinese Yuan using a familiar digital wallet. Novatti facilitates the cross-border processing and settlement into AUD, offering real time exchange rate transparency and reducing reliance on international wire transfers. Settlement timeframes are also improved. Compared to traditional international wire transfers that can take several days, the Alipay→Novatti pipeline supports faster availability of funds.

Mark Healy, CEO of Novatti, said the integration reflects the growing importance of familiar payment experiences for international students.

“When students arrive in Australia, they should be able to pay in a way that feels familiar and straightforward for them and their families. For many Chinese students, that means using Alipay. By enabling payments in Yuan and handling the cross-border settlement in the background, we’re helping remove a lot of the friction that can come with paying tuition from overseas.”

China remains UNSW’s largest international student cohort. Offering trusted, localised payment options within the university’s own portal improves accessibility for students, in a highly dynamic global education environment.

The collaboration brings together UNSW’s digital infrastructure, Xetta’s payments platform and Novatti’s regulated crossborder and payment acceptance capabilities to deliver a solution tailored to the needs of international students.

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