SA medi-hotels should take in international students not interstate travellers, says uni chief

SA’s quarantine system should take in international students to boost local business rather than interstate residents, Adelaide Uni’s chief says.

South Australians should be angry the state’s coronavirus quarantine facilities were clogged up with people who do not contribute to the state – unlike international students, Adelaide University vice-chancellor Peter Hoj says.

“Maybe 90 per cent” of travellers occupying medi-hotel beds left SA as soon as they completed their 14-day quarantine, he said.

In contrast, if international students were allowed back they would stay in SA and contribute to the economic recovery.

Pre-COVID-19, international students were SA’s biggest export earner, pumping $2.2bn a year into local businesses and unis.

“People should be outraged by everything being seen through a narrow political lens rather than what is in their broader interest,” Prof Hoj told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia forum on Thursday.

The students were major customers for cafes and tourism businesses which were under stress with the end of JobKeeper payments, he said.

Adelaide University students Panisa Dechwechprasit, from Thailand, and Naileh Zainarry, from Malaysia, with vice-chancellor Professor Peter Hoj.

Flinders University vice-chancellor Colin Stirling said discussion about international students had been tarnished by racist sentiment.

“We hear a lot of rhetoric around China, around trade wars, around COVID, around international students and the risks and threats and financial imposts they’ve created for universities,” he said.

This was rubbing off into general antagonism to anyone of Chinese background, including Australian citizens, he said

“We need a higher calibre debate in this country around China in particular,” he said.

“It’s incumbent on our government that they deliver that.”

Professor Colin Stirling, vice-chancellor of Flinders University.

Prof Stirling said international students were valuable sources of revenue to unis but their impact was far broader and the context often misunderstood.

Students who studied here were extraordinarily valuable in ongoing relationships with other countries, forming lifelong alliances with Australia.

“We diminish that at our absolute peril,” he said.

At Flinders, 13 per cent of the students were international, drawn from all over the world, with one fifth of those being from China.

In line with all Australian unis and its own budget estimates, enrolments of new international students has plummeted this year at Flinders, with headcount down by nearly a half to 653 compared to just over 1200 who started at the beginning of 2020.

At Adelaide, new international enrolments were down 15 per cent to 836 this semester in full-time equivalent terms – and this was expected to worsen to a 32 per cent downturn over the full year.

At UniSA commencements of international students were down by about 60 per cent, or 600 full-time equivalents.

As well as fewer in number, those students international students who have signed up are undertaking fewer subjects than usual – further reducing the fees unis will receive.

UniSA vice-chancellor David Lloyd said the university had made an operating surplus of $21m in 2020 on revenue of $696m, roughly level with the year before.

Professor David Lloyd, vice-chancellor of UniSA.

All unis are budgeting for considerable loss of revenue this year, after already cutting an estimated 17,340 jobs nationwide since the pandemic hit.

A pilot program to bring in 300 students to complete their uni courses in SA has been stalled since nearly being given the go-ahead last November.

SA Health did not dispute Prof Hoj’s estimates on quarantine transients. The estimates did not account for South Australians returning home via interstate flights and quarantine stays.

StudyAdelaide chief executive Karyn Kent said SA had an obligation to international students who had invested considerable amounts of money as customers.

She told of a student, Marcus, studying a health course, who has been hoping to get the green light to return.

“That hope is now turning to despair,” she said.

Marcus had been in limbo for a year – unable to start any other substantial study or work while waiting for a seat on a plane.

He had continued to pay rent and health cover and lost a year’s career earnings.

“There is no light at the end of the tunnel,” Marcus had told Ms Kent.

Torrens University vice-chancellor Alwyn Louw said higher education needed to review its business models and embrace more online systems.

However, if Australia failed to allow in international students “the risk is we lose credibility” in the market.