English language schools calling on national cabinet to set a date for a foreign student arrivals

Australia’s English language schools and private colleges are calling on Scott Morrison and the national cabinet set a date to bring back foreign students this year.

International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood. Picture: Aaron Francis

Australia’s English language schools and private colleges are calling on Scott Morrison and the national cabinet to set a date to bring back foreign students this year, saying a $2.4bn industry and nearly 80,000 jobs are at stake.

English language schools and private colleges, unlike public universities, are almost wholly reliant on foreign students. They warn businesses will close without any overseas students this year.

In two letters to the Prime Minister, seen by The Australian, the heads of the private higher education sector’s peak bodies have asked for the national cabinet to set a date for foreign student arrivals and a “positive” message to try to convince prospective students not to pick British or Canadian schools instead.

“With Australians currently unable to holiday overseas, even our tourism, hospitality and retail industries have at least been able to tap into the domestic market to keep their doors open. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the international education sector,” one letter states.

“Large numbers of our associations’ member institutions are ­either totally reliant on their international students’ fee income or are unable to make ends meet by relying only on relatively small … domestic student cohorts.”

Hopes that overseas students would return by March have been dashed in recent weeks by the tightening of arrival caps and Education Minister Alan Tudge’s warning it will be “very difficult” to get students back before 2022.

The chiefs of the International Education Association, the independent Tertiary Education Council, Higher Education Australia, and English Australia want premiers to take the lead on international arrivals and convince students to stick with Australia.

“We hereby request national cabinet’s urgent consideration and response as follows: provision of an indicative date sometime in the 2021 calendar year so that overseas students already enrolled (who are still located in their home country/another country) might be able to return here to complete their studies,” they say.

Premiers have recently backed away from returning international students in significant numbers this year. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian this month delayed a student pilot program due to the COVID-19 outbreaks in Sydney, and Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews has said bringing back foreign students in 2021 is “frankly not possible”.

International Education Association chief Phil Honeywood said the industry needed answers from next week’s national cabinet meeting and that foreign students deserved the same treatment from premiers as “movie stars, sport players and fruit pickers”.

“The prospect of putting their lives on hold for yet another year, while other countries are welcoming them back, is becoming increasingly problematic,” he said.

“We now have ample precedent of movie stars, sport players and fruit pickers being permitted to travel here for a particular purpose. Why should students who need to complete their qualifications, in an industry that employs 240,000 Australians, be treated any differently?”

A spokeswoman for the federal government said on Tuesday that state governments would lead on preparing the nation for the eventual restart of an international student intake.

“The Australian government is in discussions with all jurisdictions about continued planning for international student arrivals,” she said.

English Australia chief executive Brett Blacker said English language centres had seen more than a 40 per cent drop in new students and the sector’s global reputation was being threatened.

“We’re the most impacted by the border closure. We rely 100 per cent on foreign nationals and businesses will close,” Mr Blacker warned.