Many first-year students will have already enrolled in countries such as the UK and Canada which have been able to offer more certainty. Victoria has approval for a pilot program for international students but it’s feared that few students will able to start on campus by March. Victoria University vice-chancellor Adam Shoemaker said, at this stage, he did not expect any new international students would be able to travel to Melbourne to start their studies in time for Semester 1.The absence of the students and the loss of revenue would be another financial blow to the higher education sector which was worth $14 billion to the state’s economy before the pandemic. NED-4588-VIC-roadmap-out-of-lockdownInternational Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said the prospect of students returning for first semester was increasingly problematic.“Unfortunately, because of the lack of political will it appears that Victoria will miss on an effective start to Semester 1, 2022,’’ Mr Honeywood said.“This will entail that a third year without a pipeline of full fee-paying students has been lost to the state’s economy.“All hopes are now focused on the second half off 2022 and into 2023.’’Mr Honeywood said there was no clarity for prospective students who would “vote with their feet” and study in other nations such as the UK and Canada.Just 72,000 international students were still living in Victoria, down from about 180,000 pre-pandemic, according to Peter Hurley, policy fellow at the Mitchell Institute at Victoria University.Another 50,000 students enrolled in Victorian universities were remote learning offshore, he said.Prof Shoemaker said Victoria University had a “few hundred” international students studying outside Australia, half of whom would complete their courses by mid-2022. He said there was hope if the Australian border reopened soon to non-citizens, and if the government removed quarantining for fully vaccinated international travellers. “We expect most of our international students starting next year to be already in Australia.’’The state government’s International Student Arrivals Plan has been approved by the federal department.Monash University vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner said that 48 per cent of international students enrolled in Australian institutions were are studying offshore. Monash has about 10,000 students still overseas and using remote learning.“Our goal for 2022 is to see our returning students back on campus, and have new students enrolled in our face-to-face delivery and online modes of study,’’ Prof Gardner said.Melbourne Uni vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell welcomed the pilot program and was confident more would return.“I am optimistic that a large proportion of new or returning international students will be studying on campus in 2022,” Professor Maskell said.
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