Coronavirus: Daniel Andrews slams door on overseas students

Victorian Premier dashes hopes for 2021 revival of international education industry.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has dashed hopes for a revival of the international education industry in his state, saying that the return of large numbers of students is “not possible” in 2021.

“Tens of thousands of inter­national students coming back here is going to be incredibly challenging, if not impossible, this year,” he said on Monday.

“We want to get it back as fast as we can, but … the government is not spending hours and hours to try and make something I frankly think is not possible, possible.”

His statement came as the Victorian government deals with COVID cases discovered on three special charter flights bringing tennis players and officials to Australia for next month’s Australian Open in Melbourne. More than 120 people, including 72 tennis players, were forced into two weeks’ strict quarantine.

Mr Andrews said he was not pleased the state’s largest export — international education — would lose another year of students but Victoria did not have the facilities to accommodate thousands of students in quarantine.

“The prospect of tens of thousands of international students coming here while we’ve still got people struggling to get home, or even if there was every Aussie that wanted to come home had already made it home, there’s a big cap­acity issue here,” he said.

“There are limits to how many people you can safely quarantine when your risk threshold is so high.”

The Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia, which represents tertiary education providers outside the public university and TAFE system, said the Premier’s comments were ­“disappointing”.

“Independent providers and students need certainty for the pathway forward. While that might, by necessity, mean no large-scale return of students in 2021, to unequivocally rule out any pilot program or trial is unhelpful,” ITECA chief executive Troy Will­iams said.

Last year’s Victorian budget put up $334m to help the state’s international education sector get through the second wave of corona­virus, but the state government’s long-term foreign student sector strategy has been delayed.

The $12.5bn international education sector is the Victoria’s largest export market — it is one of the few states in Australia where the leading export is not mineral or agriculture related.

International Education Association chief executive Phil Honeywood slammed the Victorian government for not having a foreign student strategy.

He said other states could benefit from Victoria’s delay in bringing in foreign students. “Victoria is the only state that has no current international education strategy or official expert advisory body … it’s no surprise they are the least willing to now contemplate the return of full fee paying students,” he told The Australian.

“The Northern Territory government proved in November that it’s entirely possible to bring students back from overseas safely. Any state that has the political will to follow the NT’s example will gain market share off the other states for the foreseeable future.”

The NSW government says it would still like to see international students return to the state this year but has not set a date. In December, after a COVID outbreak in Sydney, it put on hold its plan due to start this month for 1000 returning international students to enter the state each week.

This followed the postponement of South Australia’s plan to return 300 international students in November after a COVID scare in Adelaide. The SA government still hopes it will go ahead this year.

The University of Melbourne said it was in talks with the Victorian government “about the mechanics to facilitate the return of overseas students”.

“We recognise the challenges involved and look forward to being able to welcome all students, including our international students, back on to campus as soon as safely possible,” the university said.