Lord Mayor Sally Capp pushes for trial to bring international students back to Melbourne

Lord Mayor Sally Capp says Victoria desperately needs international students to return and is now offering up a plan to make it happen.

The push to get international students back to Victoria has been backed by Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp who is proposing a trial program including a charter flight and small numbers in quarantine.

Cr Capp says Victoria should learn from a pilot scheme conducted by Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory which brought in about 60 students from Singapore late last year.

The council has been in talks with universities including inner-city RMIT and Melbourne about how to revive the international education sector worth about $14 billion a year to the state pre-COVID.

The State Government has yet to deliver its strategy to the federal government on how students can return to Victoria.

Thousands of students, mostly from Asia, either stayed away or returned home when the pandemic hit last March. Some students are now turning their back on Australia, looking to enrol in other nations such as Canada and the UK.

Students stayed away from Melbourne University last year during the pandemic.

Cr Capp has been advocating a plan based on a limited number of international students flying in, but not at the expense of any Australian still trying to get home.

“We want to try and develop a system that ensures the safe return of students in a small initial trial but in a way that can be scaled up swiftly,’’ Cr Capp said.

“We’ve seen how international students studying at Charles Darwin University were able to successfully return to their on-campus studies through a bespoke program, which included a charter flight and mandatory quarantine.

“International students deliver major social, cultural and economic benefits to Melbourne and we continue to work with universities to advocate to state and federal governments for their safe return to our city.’’

Lord Mayor Sally Capp wants overseas students safely back in the city. Picture: David Caird

Foreign students are important to the city economy and CBD retailers and hospitality businesses rely on them as a casual workforce.

International Education Association chief executive Phil Honeywood said New South Wales and South Australia were working on plans to bring students in later in the year but Victoria was silent.

“It’s an indictment on the Daniel Andrews government that our No 1 industry – international education – has just been left hanging all this time,’’ Mr Honeywood said.

About 25,000 students were enrolled in Victorian universities and want to come back, he said.

A state government spokesman said $33.4 million was in the budget to lay the foundation for a strong recovery for the sector.

“We look forward to welcoming international students back to Victoria when it is safe to do so,” he said.

International flights into Victoria are still suspended after failures of the hotel quarantine system.

The travel ban on international students cost Australia $9bn in lost export earnings last year. And the impact will worsen in 2021 https://t.co/SpX1UPElMg

— Tim Dodd (@TimDoddEDU) February 16, 2021

Student accommodation providers Scape and UniLodge have offered to run quarantine programs in their buildings.

But most governments have been reluctant to consider a student quarantine program because of increased coronavirus infection risk and with thousands of Australians still stuck overseas.

Charles Darwin University flew in 63 students into Darwin from Singapore on November 30 and they then spent 14 days in quarantine at Howard Springs.