Coronavirus: Lock-up Premier opens Victoria to international students

The Victorian government is drawing up plans to allow international students to re-enter the state.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Getty

The Victorian government is drawing up plans to allow international students to re-enter the state as the higher education sector warns it is facing a loss of up to $8bn if foreign students remain locked out for the first semester.

The Australian has learned that the Victorian government plans to take to national cabinet on February 5 a scheme that would increase the number of overseas arrivals allowed in the state — currently 160 a day — and create a separate entry quota for international students.

Fears are growing in the university sector that reduced international arrival caps, announced last week by national cabinet as part of efforts to prevent the entry of more cases of the highly infectious UK coronavirus strain into the country, have ended any hope international students will be allowed into the county before the middle of the year.

Senior industry figures say the caps will devastate the chances of revival in 2021.

The move comes after nearly 2800 international students signed a Commonwealth petition demanding the federal government exempt international students from border closures and allow them to return to Australia.

The petition, along with the Twitter campaign #bringusbacktoaus, have been circulating among international students who are currently struggling with what they say are “bad quality” online lessons overseas due to the Covid-related travel ban.

“We are forced to defer because of invalid internships and in-person courses,” the petition reads.

“We do not pay our family’s savings for video lessons or rent for houses which we cannot even live in. International students contribute millions of dollars to Australia community and benefit Aussie society in various areas.”

The sudents say they will “quarantine, obey any rules and pay all the fees” if they are allowed to return to Australia.

“We are willing to quarantine in students’ apartments and will not take any stranded Australians’ places.

“Please allow international students who do not have online lessons and are at urgent to study enter Australia, go back to their schools and continue their education on a voluntary basis.”

It is believed that many of the participating students are from China, Pakistan and Malaysia.

It is understood from an email seen by The Australian that the Victorian government intends to propose a scheme to quarantine a quota of international students.

While international education represents Victoria’s biggest export industry, the plans could prove contentious.

Tens of thousands of Australians remain stranded overseas after national cabinet’s decision to halve the number of international arrivals coming to NSW, Queensland and WA until next month.

Victoria has also this month diverted resources to enable 1200 tennis players and support people to come to Melbourne for the Australian Open.

Victoria was unable to take any international arrivals between July and December, as it battled its second wave of coronavirus, and irate Australians stuck overseas have expressed anger at the suggestion that tennis players or international students would receive priority over them.

Premier Daniel Andrews — when asked on Thursday about plans to assist tertiary education and agriculture, which is facing a seasonal worker shortage — said there was “a lot of work going on’’ in relation to both issues.

“I can’t give you a date when we’ll finalise all of that work but it’s literally what’s dominating a fair bit of our time at the moment — it’s those cohorts as well as business migrants more broadly,” Mr Andrews said.

“All of those are critical to making sure that the economy is as strong as it can possibly be, but none of them are easy.

“They all come with their own challenges, and when we have an announcements to make, we’ll be sure to do that.”

Mr Andrews said any scheme to bring in international students or seasonal workers would need to conform to COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria standards, as had been the case with the Australian Open quarantine program, which is being run by CQV and Victoria Police with funding from Tennis Australia.

Asked about Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s plan to use mine camps to quarantine travellers, Mr Andrews said he had previously raised with the federal government the possibility of using defence facilities for the same purpose “and the answer was no, that they were not deemed to be suitable”.

“If Annastacia can find another facility that she can make work then that’s fine, we’d always look at different options … There’s all manner of different options … I’m sure we will have a discussion at our next national cabinet meeting,” Mr Andrews said.

International Education Association chief executive Phil Honeywood embraced the mine camp proposal on Thursday and said the sector would lose at least $8bn if there were no international students in semester one.

“The international education sector would be very happy with any quarantine setting that will ensure students can come back to study,” Mr Honeywood said.

“With current international students moving on to post-study work visas and others dropping off, we’re looking conservatively at a $8bn hit to tuition fees this semester for the year.”

The nation’s leading higher education experts said this month that it could take up to four years for universities to recover from the loss of foreign students and 2021 would be worse for a sector that had already lost more than 12,000 jobs in the past year.

Victoria’s international student market was worth $12.5bn in the 2019 financial year. The state’s largest tertiary institutions, the University of Melbourne and Monash, have projected revenue shortfalls of $300m and $350m respectively this financial year after the pandemic and the loss of foreign students.

Melbourne University vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell said last year his institution — globally the highest ranked Australian university — would be “smaller” as it faced a $1bn loss from international student fees over three years.

Several recent plans to get significant numbers of international students back to Australia via pilot programs have been dashed in the past six months.

Australians stranded overseas cannot understand why state and federal governments do not seem to be prioritising their repatriation. Paul Halford, who became stuck in Indonesia during the pandemic after his pregnant wife developed complications, has been living on rapidly depleted savings since August, unable to get a flight home.

“Ask the government how tennis players can get in,” Mr Halford said.

“It is a kick in the teeth for us families stuck overseas with no income. The song says, we are one but we are many …what a load of crap that is.’’

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said last week she was delaying her proposal to bring in international students due to the reduction in arrival caps and the clusters in Greater Sydney.

The University of Sydney is hoping foreign students return in 2021, but is prepared to keep them studying online for now.

“We continue to work with the NSW government on options for international students to return to Australia to complete their studies. Charles Darwin University recently used the Howard Springs facility to successfully quarantine returning international students, so a range of quarantine options are viable,” a spokeswoman said.

A plan to bring in 350 students back to the Australian National University and the University of Canberra was foiled last July by the Victorian second wave.