Push for overseas students to return

NSW will accept international students within months, using a quarantine system likely to be paid for by the university sector.

The proposal will require overseas students to quarantine for 14 days in placements that will be counted separately from the existing 3000-person weekly travel cap.

NSW will begin accepting international students within months and act without the commonwealth to revive its ailing education industry, after police and health officials signed off on a plan to accept arrivals using a quarantine system likely to be paid for by the university sector.

The proposal, accepted by the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, will permit overseas students to enter NSW and quarantine in Sydney using purpose-built housing, as vaccinations begin to ramp up across the general population.

Initial arrivals are expected to begin imminently — NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said he was hoping students would be channelled back into lecture halls and tutoring sessions by the start of this year’s second semester, or around August.

The plan deviates heavily from the federal government’s intention to prioritise stranded citizens abroad and comes as Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg insist the country’s borders should remain shut for the foreseeable future.

On Wednesday Mr Morrison continued to deflect criticism that he set a reopening date for the country, with Mr Frydenberg adding that Australians could not risk exposure to new outbreaks and variant strains of COVID-19.

“We cannot afford to take the risk right now to open our borders in a way that would compromise the health of Australians. So, we’re unapologetic about putting the health of Australians first,” Mr Frydenberg said.

But Mr Perrottet remains similarly unapologetic about the economic imperatives attached to the education sector — an industry previously worth $14bn each year to the NSW economy. He said the state would move ahead with or without the Federal Government’s blessing.

“We are close to finalising a plan to start bringing back students very soon over the coming months, ideally for the start of the second semester this year. This is about finding a way to bring students back but not at the expense of the weekly cap of Australian citizens arriving back in NSW,” he told The Australian.

“If we don’t address this issue then I believe we’ll have an industry on its knees and one that will look elsewhere,” he told The Australian.

Details of the scheme are close to being finalised, but the proposal will broadly require students to quarantine for 14 days, as per usual, in placements that will be counted separately from the existing 3000-person weekly travel cap. This cap on arrivals, which is significantly higher than that offered by other jurisdictions, limits the number of flights that can arrive into Sydney, and has kept thousands of citizens marooned abroad.

Foreign students disembark from an international flight at Darwin Airport last November. The charter flight organised by Charles Darwin University was the first time students had entered Australia since the previous March. Picture: Charles Darwin University/AFP

But unlike the many returned citizens who have been fortunate enough to land back in Australia, and who have faced sizeable out-of-pocket costs for their time in quarantine, the student proposal will most likely see payment assistance provided by universities.

A formal announcement is expected to be made ahead of the NSW budget in June.

In the face of expected criticism that students are being prioritised over citizens, the NSW Government is likely to pose a counterargument that most of its travel cap is used up by interstate arrivals, many of whom do not pay their fees.

Another point of contention is the lack of payments from neighbouring jurisdictions.

Requests have been made of the Queensland and West Australian governments to assist with the program’s ongoing costs however these have been ignored or, in some cases, declined on technicalities.

Western Australia continues to refuse to pay contributions because its former treasurer, Ben Wyatt, was not physically present at the meeting of state treasurers where the arrangements were agreed upon.

Frustrations have also been levelled at the Queensland government — its former treasurer, Jackie Trad, agreed to the arrangement but the costs remain unmet by her successor.

The need to revive international student arrivals is rooted in concerns that other countries will receive a first-mover advantage should Australia’s borders remain closed. A tender document calling for expressions of interest to provide the purpose-built accommodation, published in April, specified a mandatory minimum capacity of 600 people within these facilities.

A recent survey of 6,000 international students, conducted by IDP connect, a leading student recruitment firm based in London, found that Australia lacked the same assurances and road maps for students as countries such as Canada.

“Urgency is key,” said IDP Education chief executive Andrew Barkla. “Countries such as Australia need to give students reassurance and outline a road map for how international students are able to enter the country safely and commence on-campus learning, and a timeline for a return to face-to-face learning.”

In Queensland, frustrations have been similarly levelled at the ongoing impasse between state and federal governments over the revival of the university sector.

Additional reporting: Rosie Lewis