Plan being finalised this week will bring 300 international students back to Adelaide’s Universities

The final details of a scheme to bring 300 international students into SA are being hammered out this week – but none will take the place of returning Australians.

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A trial to bring 300 international students back to South Australia is likely to get the green light within days.

The final details of the national-first pilot program to fly the students from Singapore back to Adelaide in September are being ironed out between the state and federal governments this week.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has confirmed the trial will not affect Australians trying to come home while each state has a cap on overseas arrivals.

“No international students will take the place of Australians returning from overseas,” said Mr Tehan.

He did not confirm further details but said the pilot was being finalised by the commonwealth, SA and local universities.

A State Government spokeswoman also indicated the scheme was close to being finalised.

The state’s universities, collectively facing a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars because the critical revenue stream from international students has been cut off, are desperate to have them back.

But even the small-scale pilot plan has been highly controversial.

Polls have found the vast majority of South Australians oppose it, either on health-risk grounds or the perceived unfairness of allowing students in, while locals have loved ones overseas or in Victoria who can’t or aren’t allowed to come home.

Scott Morrison and state premiers are reviewing the caps on overseas arrivals, which were implemented in July as Victoria’s COVID-19 outbreak was worsening and other states were taking more incoming travellers.

The Prime Minister told Coalition MPs in a partyroom briefing yesterday that he was regularly reviewing the caps with state leaders but no one wanted to put stress on the nation’s hotel quarantine system by creating a surge in arrivals.

The growing push to lift the caps comes after Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials last week told a Senate inquiry the limits had been a “significant challenge” for more than 18,000 Australians overseas still trying to get home.

Premier Steven Marshall has said South Australia was already looking at expanding its hotel quarantine capacity.

SA’s moves to relax border restrictions to NSW and the ACT within weeks are also likely to be viewed favourably for the student trial being approved.

Borders have previously been a sticking point, with Mr Morrison warning premiers in June that their internal borders must be opened before trials could go ahead.