Highlights
- A 600-bed student accommodation site had been approved to be converted into quarantine
- The student arrivals would be counted under a separate arrival cap
- The plan still would require the approval of the federal education minister, Alan Tudge
The pandemic has hit the international education sector hard.
Over 100,000 international students were stuck overseas when Australia's borders first closed in February 2020, and new international students are still unable to enter the country.
Si Thu Zin is a Medical student at the University of New South Wales.
He moved to Australia from Myanmar in 2019 to start his degree.
Luckily he was in Sydney when borders first closed so he was able to continue his degree even as classes shifted online, but he says many of his classmates haven’t returned, and some of them are now looking elsewhere to finish their studies.
"Most of the international students want to come back as soon as possible but as we all know it won’t be possible for the foreseeable future. They are looking at other options like transferring to universities in their home country abroad like the United States or UK where the borders are open for international student."
"Most of my friends who are currently enrolled in medicine at UNSW have applied for exemption, they have applied ten to 20 times but they have been rejected"
New modelling from the Mitchell Institute shows that border closures mean the value of Australia's international education sector will shrink from 40.3 billion dollars in 2019 to 20.5 billion dollars by the end of 2022.
In New South Wales alone, international students make up 14-billion dollars of the states economy.
In order to try to get back some of that revenue, the state has sent a COVID-safe plan to the federal government for consideration.
The proposal would allow overseas students to return, as long as they undertake quarantine at a special approved site in Sydney.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Commonwealth was aware of the ambitious proposal.
"The Premier and I have discussed these matters and we have been working away on this, we have always said that we want to work with the states and sectors on how we can address these issues.
There still a long way from landing this I should stress, but it something we are encouraging of but we have to do it safely and in a way that doesn't risk what the great success we've had because that’s what the budget it about, securing Australia’s recovery"
The news comes despite Mr Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg saying Australia's borders will remain closed until next year.
The proposal states that students coming into New South Wales would be counted under a separate arrival cap, and would not take away spaces from returning Australian citizens.
The New South Wales plan is something that Pamela Gutierrez in the Philippines is waiting for.
She completed her bachelor degree in Design in Manila, but says she is hoping to study her Masters at the University of Sydney
"I’ve been looking for courses in Australia during the pandemic and now I am waiting for my acceptance letter for the courses I have applied for. There are some pros and cons right now to doing it online versus having it in person.
Doing it online is good for me right now because the borders aren’t openyet, but I would love to do lab works and any other school works in person, that’s what I am looking forward to when hopefully the borders open and I go to Australia."
While Pamela says she’s willing to wait for borders to open and would be happy to start her course online, there are warnings that online enrolments from students outside Australia, won't be able to fill the void.
According to figures from the Mitchell Institute - In November 2020, just under 17,000 new students had enrolled while outside Australia – that accounted for just 3.4% of all enrolments.
The Institute concluded this suggests international students are not enrolling online in sufficient quantities to arrest the decline in overall international student enrolment.
Catriona Jackson from Universities Australia says the closure of international borders until next year will posee a serious challenges for all Australian Universities.
"Universities have a very serious revenue challenge. We lost 1.8 billion dollars last year, 2 billion predicted to be lost this year. If we don't have students back from overseas in substantial numbers before the middle of next year, the situation will get worst. No sector can sustain those sorts of losses without real damage, real damage to the nation and to our ability to be productive and recover"
The fate of Australia's international education sector now rests on Australia's border policy.
