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- International students will soon be welcomed back as part of a NSW Government trial to help kick-start the billion-dollar business
- The international student allocation will be in addition to the current number of returning Australians allowed into NSW each week
- NSW Health would triage arriving students and direct them to quarantine at specially approved student accommodation at no cost to taxpayers
- The government has developed a pilot plan with NSW Health and NSW Police that enables 250 international students to come to Sydney per fortnight
- In March 2021 NSW received 120 international students, a 99.4 per cent drop from the same time last year
International students will soon be welcomed back as part of a NSW Government trial to help kick-start the billion-dollar business.
In the second half of the year, a limited number of students from a range of countries will be housed in purpose-built student accommodation adhering to the same quarantine requirements as all incoming travellers.
The international student allocation will be in addition to the current number of returning Australians allowed into NSW each week.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said international students are a vital missing piece in the state’s economic recovery, with the sector worth $14.6 billion in 2019.
“International education is our second most valuable export and we need to do what we can to help students return and revive this sector as quickly as possible,” Mr Perrottet said.
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, in March 2020 as the international border started to close, Australia had 60,370 international student arrivals.
In March 2021, this number was just 230. NSW saw 120 international students arrive in the same month, a 99.4 per cent drop from the same time last year.
“Typically, we have more than 250,000 international students studying in NSW each year and they directly supported over 95,000 local jobs prior to the pandemic,” Mr Perrottet said.
“If we don’t act fast, students will turn to other overseas destinations and it could take the sector decades to recover.”
The government has developed a pilot plan with NSW Health and NSW Police that enables 250 international students to come to Sydney per fortnight.
“This won’t come 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.
NSW Health would triage arriving students and direct them to quarantine at specially approved student accommodation at no cost to taxpayers.
Professor Barney Glover AO, on behalf of the NSW Vice Chancellors’ Committee, welcomed the state’s approval of the program.
“As at May this year, there were many higher education students diligently studying offshore — many of whom expect to return to our campuses to finish their studies,” he said.
“We are excited to finally welcome back international students to experience the worldclass education, training and research that makes NSW such an attractive destination for education.”
International students haven’t transitioned to the online world in great numbers the Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute found.
“The number of new students enrolling online was actually quite low,” Stuck in transit: International student update report author Dr Peter Hurley said in April.
“By November 2020, only 17,000 new students had enrolled from overseas, just 3.3 per cent of total enrolments. This is well short of the 120,000 new students who would normally enrol every six months.”
The report did find that the value of offshore international students studying online increased from $9 million in 2019 to $3.3 billion in 2020. However, the bulk of the increase came from displaced, currently enrolled students.
In December 2020, Charles Darwin University, in collaboration with the Northern Territory and Federal Government, had 63 international students return. But this pilot program is yet to be replicated.
The NSW plan has been submitted to the Federal Government for final review.
