Plan needed for foreign students

Universities call on federal government to get foreign students back to Australia. Canberra says that depends on states.

Professor Deborah Terry told the ­National Press Club the federal government needs to co-ordinate the return of international students, even as it waits for quarantine blueprints from the states. Picture: Glenn Hunt

Universities Australia chair­woman Deborah Terry is calling on the Morrison government to devise a plan to bring foreign ­students back to Australia, as Canberra says the $40bn inter­national education sector’s ­revival depends on the states.

Trade Minister Dan Tehan said the return of international students into Australia could not proceed until the states gave the commonwealth detailed plans on how they would quarantine foreign students.

The closure of Australia’s international borders has threatened the $10bn stream of revenue universities get from foreign students, and enrolments from overseas plunged by 5 per cent last year.

Professor Terry told the ­National Press Club on Wednesday the federal government would still need to co-ordinate the return of international students and develop a national plan, even as it waited for quarantine blueprints from the states.

“Now the vaccine has been rolled out, we do think it would be helpful to have a national plan around (how) we might be able to get international students back,” she said. “I agree with the minister that state governments need to progress and look at the very ­detailed plans (universities have worked with them on). But having a national plan to assist with co-ordination will also help.”

Mr Tehan, who was promoted to the trade portfolio in December after nearly two years as education minister, said on Wednesday the states first needed to give Canberra more details on how they would handle international students.

“What we need from all states and territories, initially, is a plan from them as to how they want to bring international students back into their state and territory, how they’ll be accommodated, how they’ll put those quarantine ­arrangements in place,” he told the ABC. “This is a $40bn export earner for Australia. So all of us have an interest in making sure that we can get the international student education market back up and running.”

The international education sector fears foreign students may not get back to Australia before the beginning of the universities’ second semester in the middle of the year and could even be prevented from entering the country until 2022.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet this week called on the ­national cabinet to set aside a portion of Australia’s international arrival cap for international students, but proposals to quarantine NSW foreign students in other states have been rebuffed by Tasmania.