Education has been one of the main sources of foreign exchange for Australia and apart from making a substantial contribution to the Australian economy, the Sector has also provided much-need the man-power base for skilled labour that diverse sectors in the Australian economy requires.
It has also been one of the main sources of generating higher quality employments. The loss income generated by hundreds of thousands of international students, due to Australia’s strict border closures and lockdowns will make a $18 billion dent in the economy and the Morrison government warns universities to be less dependent on foreign tuition fees in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Research commissioned by The Sunday Age has shed light on the overwhelming economic impact of coronavirus, particularly, on Melbourne’s CBD, which has lost nearly half of its student population since December 2019 – and in some other education hubs in the outer suburbs such as Clayton, Box Hill and Springvale.
Crisis in the Education Sector
The figures come as the sector plunged into crisis in decades. The obvious consequences are that the universities have to cut down courses and subjects, resulting in the loss of, least 17,300 higher education jobs, nationally after the decline in revenue due to absence of higher-paying international students at Universities and other education institutes.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate only 360 international students arrived in Australia in January as opposed to 91,250 international student arrivals in the previous January. About 260,000 have been stranded offshore since outbreak of the pandemic.
According to an education industry expert, the Victorian government was far behind compared to other states in terms of restarting the in-flow of foreign students, although international education is the state’s largest source of income.
“NSW, South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory have all advanced their plans but Victoria is still at the drawing board stage,” said International Education Association of Australia chair Phil Honeywood.
According to the Mitchell Institute’s analysis for The Sunday Age, the loss of international students ‘contribution to the nation’s economy declined to almost half of more than $40 billion in 2019 to an estimated $22 billion by the end of this year – a drastic drop of almost $18 billion.
In Victoria alone, the loss of income will be in the region of $6 billion, while in NSW, it is expected to drop by $7 billion. It is clear that the forecasts hint out that damage and loss of income would be worse throughout 2021.
Mitchell Institute policy analyst Peter Hurley warned the impact would remain as the number of international students finishing courses continued to outnumber the students replacing them.
“Even if the government did open the border or try to find temporary quarantine arrangements, it may not be enough to stop the decline,” he said.
Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has told vice chancellors to diversify their revenue streams by conducting more to commercialise research, broaden the countries they source international students from and focus more on domestic students.
“International students have been good for our country in terms of revenue they’ve provided – in terms of the individuals which stay on and become great citizens and in terms of the relationships with other countries – but at the end of the day, the purpose of our public universities is to teach Australian students, and we shouldn’t forget that,” Mr Tudge told The Sunday Age.
What is noteworthy is that a year after the Morrison government told international students to “go home”, it is feared that international students would opt for competitor countries such as Canada and the UK.
The number of international student visa holders inside Australia at the end of 2020 (around 385,000) had drastically reduced by almost 195,000 compared to October 2019.
The trials to bring back international students were primarily dealing with the issue of existing students (the stock) stranded overseas. Even if the Programmes were successful, they would not have had a great impact on restarting the in-flow of new international students into the Australian economy.
Perhaps, time is ripe for the Morrison government to invite international students again to Australia and to create a welcoming environment for prospective international students. If not, as feared, international students would opt for competitor countries such as Canada and the UK, thereby depriving Australia of one of the mains sources of foreign exchange.
