International student dollars a $922m coronavirus hit
South Australia’s economy stands to lose billions of dollars in coming years with international students shut-out amid coronavirus travel bans.
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SA stands to lose almost two billion dollars income from international students stranded by the coronavirus over the next three years.
The first major hit will come in July if Australia’s non-citizen travel ban remains in place, says education policy think tank the Mitchell Institute at Victoria University.
SA universities will then lose $100m in tuition fees, with the problem compounding over three years to total $922m.
And the lost dollars are worse for South Australian businesses which are big beneficiaries from the students living in the state.
They will lose another $1.06m, says report author Peter Hurley.
“Over the weekend the Government announced a package of measures to assist the sector, however, it will fall well short of plugging the gap from the loss of international student revenue caused by the closed borders,’’ he said.
Universities have been guaranteed 2019-level funding for domestic students.
None of the state’s three universities have yet calculated how the coronavirus has affected enrolments or income.
Flinders University has provided online learning for 300 students who were unable to travel from China.
Around half of Australia’s Chinese students had arrived for term one when the nation’s borders began to be shut down, beginning in February.
Mr Hurley’s report is being used by Australian universities to lobby for Federal Government financial assistance.
Nationally Mr Hurley said, the crisis is so bad that each six-monthly intake of students missed due to the closed international border will deliver an economic blow equivalent to when Australia lost its entire car manufacturing industry.
In a worst-case scenario if there is no 2021 student intake, the sector nationally would lose $19b in the three years to 2023.
If students are allowed to return in 2021, the loss over the same period would be $10b.
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The Australian Investment in Education report found 40 per cent of the entire tertiary education sector’s annual student revenue came from international students.
And in SA, international students made up 33 per cent of student revenue in 2018; $222m for Adelaide University, $123m for UniSA and $93m for Flinders University.
Mr Hurley said most universities had very limited surpluses to weather the coronavirus storm.
While international student numbers and revenue had risen dramatically, caps on domestic funding meant revenue and participation rates of Australian students had been static.
He said replacement revenue could be found from domestic students, but only if the Federal Government supported the move by easing caps.
“It is likely that demand from domestic students for university places students will rise because of workers looking to re-skill and upskill during the uncertain economic conditions,’’ Mr Hurley said.
“Also, a quarter of school leavers usually take a gap year to work or travel. With those plans off the agenda – these too may be looking to study.
“However, universities are currently unable to respond fully to any changes in demand due to caps on places.’’