Private schools call for ‘boarder bubble’ for foreign students

The number of international students who travelled to Australia to learn this year has slumped, posing a significant financial challenge for many schools.

Paul Burgis, principal of Presbyterian Ladies' College in Sydney, says his ‘main worry is the effect in two years time because we haven’t been able to go overseas and recruit students’.

Private schools that face losing millions of dollars in revenue ­because overseas students are unable to come to Australia due to coronavirus restrictions are pushing to set up a “quarantine bubble” in Queensland to bring children in safely.

Enrolments of international school students are down by 20 per cent in 2020 and are expected to drop further next year, prompting schools to lobby federal, state and territory governments to establish a process for quarantining boarding students arriving from overseas.

The Australian Boarding Schools Association has written to the Queensland government seeking to set up a hotel quarantine hub in the Gold Coast ­hinterland, similar to the AFL’s hub that operated successfully throughout the football season.

Some schools are also looking at chartering special flights and quarantining international students in the Northern Territory.

The association’s chief executive, Richard Stokes, said a ­majority of the nation’s 200 boarding schools catered for international students, with overseas children accounting for up to 10 per cent of enrolments at some schools. Mr Stokes said travel restrictions — only Year 11 and 12 students are permitted to enter Australia — meant there was significant doubt as to whether a majority of oversees students would be able to re-enter the country for the start of the 2021 school year. He said international school students contributed more than $100m annually via tuition and boarding fees, providing “significant economic benefits” across the nation.

“But it’s important to remember, it’s not just that they bring money into the school, which they definitely do, but they also help to create a certain environment for our Australian kids to learn about the world,” Mr Stokes said.

According to figures provided by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment, there were 20,437 international students enrolled in Australian schools between January and October this year, down from 25,493 in 2019.

Just over 8000 were enrolled in non-government schools, down from 9307 last year.

Many schools were forced to send international students back home when Australia’s COVID-19 infections were rising earlier in the year, which resulted in a drop in revenue from ­tuition and boarding fees. Some, particularly in Victoria, offered substantial fee discounts to ­domestic students as the pandemic disrupted education across the country.

Coalition of Outer Metropolitan and Inner Regional Schools Australia acting chief Bruce Simons said schools with sizeable international student programs were facing big financial losses.

 

He said the loss of income from overseas students, for which schools do not attract recurrent government funding, combined with looming funding cuts due to a new federal funding formula, could force up school fees.

“A boarding school loses on average $1m in tuition and boarding fees for every 25 international students that do not take up their place,” Mr Simons said. “That equates to a 10 per cent rise in domestic tuition fees without the school making associated staffing and resource cuts.”

The prestigious Geelong Grammar School, which derives about 80 per cent of its annual income from student fees, has suffered significant revenue losses throughout the pandemic, prompting the school to apply for stimulus payments for its staff.

About 8 per cent of the Victorian school’s 900 boarders come from overseas, paying fees ranging between $75,000 and $83,000 a year, and students were sent back to their countries during the pandemic.

The school, which declined to comment, could be facing a $5m-plus loss of income.

For Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Sydney, international enrolments declined slightly this year and the school is aiming to keep students in Australia during the summer holidays to mitigate the risk they will be unable to return.

Principal Paul Burgis said he was less concerned about next year’s enrolments than he was for enrolments in the years to come. “My main worry is the effect in two years time because we haven’t been able to go overseas and recruit students (so) our pipeline will not be as strong,” Dr Burgis said.