Foreign student finds relief in new $45m emergency fund

International student Saaniya Kadam says a $1100 emergency relief payment will allow her to graduate and work in Australia.

Student Saaniya Kadam says it makes little sense to return to India because she is months away from graduating and wants to work in Australia. Picture: Peter Ristevski

International student Saaniya Kadam says a $1100 emergency relief payment from the Victorian government will allow her to pay her rent without sacrificing food and other essentials before finding a fulltime job in Australia.

The Deakin University Master of Construction Management student said her hours of work as a pizza chef had been cut from 20 a week to just eight as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving her with less than $200 a week to cover rent in Geelong, bills and groceries.

Ms Kadam, 27, who is in her final semester of study, has been living, working and paying tax on a student visa since arriving in Australia from India in October 2018 and is not eligible for assistance through the federal government’s Jobseeker or Jobkeeper schemes.

She is among about 40,000 international students living in Victoria who the Andrews government estimates will be eligible for its $45m international student emergency relief fund, announced on Wednesday.

The fund will provide relief payments of up to $1100 for students residing in Victoria who are suffering financial hardship as a result of the pandemic, with universities expected to provide a co-contribution through their hardship funds.

“It was such a relief to wake up to that news,” Ms Kadam said. “That will give me a little relief for the next month or two from rent and bills.”

Ms Kadam said rent in a sharehouse in the Geelong suburb of Belmont cost her $501 per month, with an additional $120 to $150 for utilities.

She said that while her family had been able to provide some support when she first arrived in Australia, she had since become financially independent, and the impact of the pandemic on her family’s income meant they were no longer able to help.

The federal government has encouraged international students who are unable to support themselves to return home, but Ms Kadam said it made little sense to do so, given she is months away from graduating from a course in which she has invested significant time and money.

“I’ve spent a lot of money, about $62,000, in my course over two years,” she said.

“I’m due to graduate in June and I hope to get a job in the construction industry in Australia. I’ve spent time and money studying and I don’t want to leave now.

“This $1100 will help pay the rent for a couple of months, but I’m still going to have to be very careful managing bills and reducing groceries.”

Victorian Jobs, Innovation and Trade Minister Martin Pakula said international students were an important part of Victoria’s community and economy and many were suffering financially.

He said the government anticipated about a quarter of approximately 150,000 international students living in Victoria would apply for the payments.

“There’ll need to be a demonstration of loss of income, so it doesn’t apply to every international student,” he said.

Mr Pakula said he, Treasurer Tim Pallas and Higher Education Minister Gayle Tierney met with vice-chancellors last week to discuss the impact of the pandemic on the university sector, particularly international students.

He said it was “gratifying” that universities were already making significant support payments to international students.

“But it’s not enough, and they’ve made it very clear that one of the most important things that the government could do to provide appropriate support for international students, and to maintain Victoria’s reputation as a great place for international students to come and study, was to make some support available ourselves,” Mr Pakula said.

“I think it’s important to note that when the COVID-19 crisis is over, there will be enormous competition for international students.

“Many of these students do not have to come to Victoria. They can go to other parts of this country, they can go to Canada, the UK and the USA, and I think the kind of experience that we provide to them and the kind of messages they send home is a really important part of having international students learn at our institutions.

“It's great for our community, for our vibrant multiculturalism, and it means that we have a ready source of very well trained graduates who are available to work here in Australian industry.”

“We think that providing some support for international students at this point when they are doing it very, very tough is not just about supporting them, although it is the compassionate and appropriate thing to do, but it's also about ensuring the reputational strength of our university sector moving forward.

International education is worth about $12.5bn to the Victorian economy each year, with universities estimating a $5.8bn reduction as a result of the pandemic.