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Medical, post grad international students the first to return to NSW
International students studying medicine and health-related degrees and those close to finishing their studies will be given priority to return to NSW universities under a long-awaited rescue plan.
Universities will foot the bill for international students to return within weeks, with 250 students to arrive each fortnight on charter flights before quarantining in special accommodation.
International students could start returning to NSW within weeks.Credit: Steven Siewert
Each university will be allocated a number of seats on private flights based on the proportion of international students they had in 2019, the last full year of academic study before the pandemic.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet announced the long-awaited pilot plan for the state’s $14 billion international education sector on Thursday. Final Commonwealth approval is expected in days.
The staged return of international students to NSW comes amid debate over when borders could reopen, with as many as 30,000 Australians still stranded overseas.
Mr Perrottet said the plan had been signed off by NSW Health and NSW Police and would operate in the same way as the existing quarantine system but the state would not pick up any costs.
Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge said NSW’s plan appeared to meet his government’s criteria.
“We are keen to see international students return to Australia, but we don’t want to risk further COVID outbreaks in Australia,” Mr Tudge said.
Students from a range of countries, predominately China but also others including Singapore and South Korea, will quarantine in purpose-built student accommodation once they arrive in Sydney.
The first site has been chosen with contract negotiations “well advanced”, Mr Perrottet said.
The pilot is expected to start within six weeks and will be scaled up by the end of the year to 500 students returning each fortnight. It has been sent to the federal government for final review.
Professor Barney Glover, convener of the NSW Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, said students in the medical and health disciplines needed to return to campuses as a priority.
“It is crucial that we get medical students back given the COVID situation but we also need to prioritise students who need to do clinical placements or field work,” Professor Glover said.
He said students who were close to finishing their studies would also be prioritised.
A focus will also be on bringing back post graduate research students.
Professor Glover said the first phase of the plan was “so vitally important to send the message” to international students that NSW was open for business.
Mr Perrottet said it was a small but important start in reviving the struggling education sector.
He said the international student allocation would be in addition to the current number of returning Australians allowed into NSW each week.
“This won’t be at the expense of returning Aussies. We will continue to bring back 3000 people per week, well more than any other state,” Mr Perrottet said.
International students have been critical to the state’s economy. Before the pandemic, NSW had more than 250,000 international students in NSW, which supported 95,000 jobs.
“If we don’t act fast, students will turn to other overseas destinations and it could take the sector decades to recover,” Mr Perrottet said.
Council of International Students president, Belle Lim said the plan “sends a great message to international students studying online offshore there is hope that things will return to normal”.
“We are pleased to see the cautious approach but are hopeful the numbers of students arriving will scale over time,” Ms Lim said.
Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert said the plan would “lay the foundation for recovery”.
“This will provide a boost to the education and travel industries and give the community confidence that we can safely and sustainably open back up to the world,” Mr Culbert said.
“Once the pilot is up and running we hope it will scale safely and sustainably so we can welcome every single international student who wants to study here in semester one next year.”
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