‘Step up’ for foreign students, Australian government urged

Australia’s international education lobby is pressing for government support after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said foreign students in financial difficulty should leave.

Queensland’s International Education and Training Advisory Group has proposed a national hardship fund to help keep colleges afloat during the crisis. The aim would be to maintain the industry’s viability and avoid a reputational backlash while keeping in touch with the students – who have been overlooked by government assistance packages even though many have lost part-time jobs.

The group argues that their plight could trigger a health and humanitarian crisis, with many international students at risk of eviction and being further cast adrift by college bankruptcies.

IETAG member Phil Honeywood said the fund should have seed funding from the federal government and contributions from philanthropic foundations and educational institutions. The state and territory governments would administer and co-fund it.

Mr Honeywood, who heads the International Education Association of Australia, said the prime minister’s comments had been “interpreted in the worst possible way by international students and their families and agents”. He said Australia should look to New Zealand and Canada “which are providing much more support to overseas students”.

Australia was often accused of being “motivated by the dollars” and should “show compassion and genuine support in an unprecedented crisis”, he said. “International education as an industry has to be a two-way street. You can’t take A$39 billion [£19 billion] a year from international students and then give nothing back in a time like this.”

Education leaders have expressed outrage at Mr Morrison’s comments, which appeared to overlook the difficulty students would have in finding flights to their home countries and the peril they might face from the pandemic when they arrived.

International students and other temporary visa holders are not eligible for benefits including the JobKeeper Payment announced on 30 March. Adding to perceptions of unfair treatment, international students employed by major supermarkets will no longer be able to work extra hours after April because Australians are now attracting these jobs.

Mr Morrison’s tone suggests the government is unlikely to sympathise with calls for support for temporary visa holders. “It’s time to go home and they should make arrangements as quickly as possible,” acting immigration minister Alan Tudge echoed on 4 April.

But foreign students who have been in Australia longer than 12 months can now access their Australian superannuation if they face financial hardship. And Mr Tudge said the government would “undertake further engagement” with institutions already providing financial support for cash-strapped overseas students. Many universities have unveiled emergency grants, loans, fee reductions, care packages and food banks for foreigners.

Australian National University policy expert Andrew Norton said that in accepting the benefits of temporary migration, the country had an obligation to protect them during major crises. He said there was no rationale for excluding international students from the JobKeeper Payment.

“This policy is as much about business continuity as personal welfare,” he blogged. Workers’ visa status “has nothing to do with how necessary they are for a business to re-start after the Covid-19 crisis is over”.

Professor Norton said mass exodus or fee default by foreign students was “the most likely trigger” for a broader higher education sector crisis. “At best, thousands of higher education workers will lose their jobs. At worst, many universities will need government intervention to survive.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com