Push to exploit Australia’s lead as a safe place for overseas students

Australia has a chance to pull out of the COVID-19 downturn in education ahead of its main competitors in the US and Britain.

Australia has an opportunity to pull out of the COVID downturn ahead of its main competitors, the US and Britain.

Australia has “a significant window of opportunity” to pull out of the COVID-19 downturn in international education ahead of its main competitors due to the turmoil in the US and the continuing crisis in Britain, according to Navitas chief executive Scott Jones.

Mr Jones, who heads Australia’s largest education company, said the country was well-positioned for a V-shaped recovery in the $40bn-a-year education export industry if governments and education providers worked together on a plan to safely resume the intake of significant numbers of foreign students early next year.

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The federal government’s success in flattening the coronavirus curve “and making Australia a very safe destination has put us in a really enviable position that we haven’t been in for quite a period”, Mr Jones said.

According to a Navitas survey of nearly 400 education agents who place international students in Australia, based on governments’ handling of the corona­virus only New Zealand is a more attractive place to study than Australia. Mr Jones said it was a major opportunity for Australia because the two countries usually preferred by international students, the US and Britain, were slipping in terms of student preference.

The US was struggling with ­issues beyond the COVID crisis, and “the UK hasn’t covered itself in glory either”, he said.

Scott Jones

Mr Jones said there was sig­nificant “pent-up demand” from international students, adding that “the first-mover advantage will be significant”.

He said for Australia to take full advantage of its position, the national cabinet needed to set out a plan by August at the latest for international students to return in substantial numbers early next year. “If we do that, we will see a V-shaped recovery going back to pre-COVID levels (of international student entry) potentially by September 2021,” he said.

But he warned if international students did not resume entering in significant numbers by March next year, then Australia would lose its first-mover advantage. “All of the northern hemisphere institutions will be 100 per cent open for business by then,” he said.

Mr Jones also said it was important universities reopened for face-to-face teaching soon, even if large lectures still had to be online to maintain social distancing.

He said the federal government also needed to resume full visa processing for international students. And there needed to be pilot programs to admit limited numbers of international students — such as those proposed by some state governments, Universities Australia and the Group of Eight — to test the processes for safe ­student entry.

“We are acutely aware that it has to be within the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines,” he added.

He said Navitas, which partners with universities to teach courses to international students, would look to China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong for the first students to return to Australia.

“They have done exceptionally well in managing the virus,” Mr Jones said.