CQU provides $600,000 in welfare to struggling students

Meals, emergency financial grants and learning support help making life bearable.

Professor Nick Klomp, Vice-Chancellor, Central Queensland University.

STRUGGLING Central Queensland University students have benefited from $600,000 in welfare including meals, emergency financial grants and learning support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The relief packages were designed to make life bearable, so students could continue to study with as little stress as possible.

Natalia Gilewska, an international student who studies at CQUniversity, said the support offered to students had been very helpful.

“I think all students have felt high levels of uncertainty during this crisis as many have lost income and were unsure about how they would be able to fund their ongoing living and study expenses,” she said.

“This was especially true for international students who had the added pressure of being so far away from loved ones and their support networks.

“The support offered by CQUniversity has helped these international students attain some of the basics they need, and it has gone some way to ease their worries.

“Along with this support, the university has also continued to provide high-quality student support including free counselling services.”

CQU Vice-Chancellor Professor Nick Klomp said many students were displaced from their part-time jobs, including international students who cannot access JobKeeper or JobSeeker.

“The university has been impacted financially but during this time it was still critical that we did whatever we could to assist students facing severe financial hardship,” he said.

“Staff from right across the university mobilised to provide essential care packages for students in self-isolation (following travel), equipment loans and bursaries, emergency financial support and food relief packages.”

Professor Klomp said the compassion and care shown by the staff had been tremendous.

“So far, I am pleased to say that we have now delivered more than $600,000 in emergency financial support including domestic student emergency funding, international student grants, care packages, food vouchers and learning resources,” he said.

“Thanks to a collaboration with valued partners including Second Bite, FareShare and Micah Projects, we have also delivered more than 7000 free pre-prepared meals and six tonnes of fresh and dry produce to our students at the Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth campuses.

“We have also offered free meals to international students in Rockhampton through our residential college.”

Along with financial support and food relief, the university has also offered an additional 100 hours of tailored academic learning support to help students manage the transition from face-to-face to fully online learning as a result of COVID-19.

Term 2 at CQUniversity kicks off on Monday, July 13, with the university to continue delivering courses online due to ongoing restrictions.

Professor Klomp said while most courses will continue online, there would be an exception for some courses that are highly practical in nature.

“This includes courses in health as well as our TAFE apprentice training,” he said.

“Apart from the continued online delivery of courses, all of our campuses will continue to open and operate as normal during Term 2.”