Coalition's university fee overhaul accused of being an 'attack on women'
Women account for two-thirds of the students in the university courses facing the biggest increase in fees under the Australian government’s proposed overhaul, according to new analysis by the Greens. The government has proposed to more than double the student contributions for humanities, social sciences, media and communications courses – with yearly fees increasing from $6,804 to $14,500 – although this does not apply to current students.
Dan Tehan’s threat to police university enrolments can’t plug the holes in the Coalition’s logic
The university funding changes announced by education minister, Dan Tehan, are driven by one principle. It’s not pitting arts funding against science, it’s about spending less per student.
Aus: unis warned to scale back expenditure
Top Australian universities have been warned that they need to scale back infrastructure projects and other expenditure in a report assessing the financial impact of lost international student revenue due to Covid-19.
Lack of vision will 'kill' unis: vice-chancellor; Exclusive
A leading vice-chancellor is warning the federal government's failure to articulate a vision for higher education will destroy universities, and a lack of new investment in research will tank Australia's long-term economic forecasts. Australian National University head Brian Schmidt's comments came as several vice-chancellors backed a potential research funding model that would allocate money to fewer, higher quality projects, and cover more of their cost.
Australia to Open Borders for One Group: International Students
While Australia’s borders remain firmly closed to overseas visitors, the government plans to make a notable exception as it races to save its fourth-biggest export: Education.
Hopes pinned on student return
"As the recovery gains momentum, South Australia's acknowledged global leadership in managing the impact of COVID-19 has the potential to increase Adelaide's attraction as a university city, and see us winning a greater share of overseas students from interstate and international alternatives." The early shutdown of Australia's borders and the repatriation of many international students have seen occupancy across most student accommodation facilities decline, with operators reporting falls of between 20 and 50 per cent.
While there are more than 38,000 international students in South Australia, ABS data reported a 25 per cent fall in international student arrivals in Australia in the three months to March. Student housing operators remain hopeful the country's management of the pandemic will appeal to international students once COVID-19 restrictions ease.
The country's largest student accommodation operator, Scape Australia, manages the Atira and Urbanest facilities in Adelaide. National marketing director Elaine Canny believes demand for student accommodation will bounce back when borders reopen. "Given how well Australia has handled the pandemic, we're seeing a lot of our overseas agents and teams reporting that Australia is becoming a more desirable place to come for many students who were perhaps considering universities in the US or UK," she said.
NSW won't take Victoria's rejected flights
Victoria's COVID crisis has thrown into doubt South Australia's plan to fly 800 international students into Adelaide this month to resume study at the state's universities. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has made border reopening a precondition for the return of international students to SA, but the COVID spike in Victoria forced SA Premier Steven Marshall to scrap the planned July 27 opening date for the state's borders. It is a setback for SA, which aims to become a major centre of international education, and hopes to bring in large numbers of international students next year.
Meanwhile the UK government, in spite of having nearly 1000 new cases of COVID a day, is aggressively marketing itself as an international student destination and will accept students in large numbers for the northern hemisphere academic year starting in September.
City & Country: Australian student accommodation remains robust amid pandemic
Savills Australia notes that the key to recovery will be the first mover advantage and resilience of the sector over the short to medium term. International education agents are monitoring which countries ease travel restrictions first before they restart recommending study opportunities in global destinations.
Global student search behaviour formulated by Studyportals â " an Eindhoven-based company that provides an online global education choice platform â " has shown the preference for, and recovery of, on-campus learning, having dropped initially post the spread of Covid-19. â As competitor nations face their own pandemics and struggles relating to the higher education sector, Australia will be able to benefit from the strict, yet early, control of the pandemic,â it says.
The 'job snob' stereotype has been used for decades to denigrate the unemployed. Facts tell a different story
Australia has seen enough shut shops and Centrelink queues to disbelieve the old beat-ups. So why is the prime minister restarting them?
Neoliberals like his government are wedded to the economics of total market liberty, not responsible government enterprise. The need for economic stimulus screams for the government to lead direct job creation to stimulate consumer spending, but having bought themselves time with the jobkeeper provision to think through how to do it, the Liberals instead defaulted to ideological preferences. They are adamantly not intervening to save 5,000 jobs at Virgin Australia or 6,000 at Qantas. They have abandoned workers in remaining government enterprises and will not be saving 2,000 jobs at Australia Post, 50 at the CSIRO, 30 at the National Gallery or a boggling 30,000 jobs at Australia's public universities. When questioned about job cuts announced at the ABC, Morrison actually smiled.
Batten Down the Hatches
Friday marked the 10th day running of double-digit increases in infections in Victoria, taking the number of active COVID-19 cases in that state to 183, triggering concerns the dreaded second wave was about to hit. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was forced to pull on the handbrake, pushing back an easing of social distancing restrictions and calling in the army to reinforce the health response.
Australia to allow international university students to return before all state borders open
Government lifts conditions in light of Victoria Covid-19 outbreak, saying situation requires a ‘ring of containment’
Students in China heed their government’s warnings against studying in Australia – less than half plan to come back
Only 40% of students in China who previously intended to study overseas still plan to, while just under 50% of those who had studied overseas plan to return to their study after the borders reopen.
Australia to open borders for one group: International students
…It's a sign of just how reliant Australia's higher education sector has become on overseas students, who make up roughly a quarter of all enrolments - the second-highest ratio in the world after Luxembourg - and 40 per cent of student revenues due to the higher fees they are charged.
Australia shelves plan to fly in international students
Trial flights of overseas students taken off the table, as safe haven visas for Hong Kong students herald more tension with China
Coronavirus outbreak thwarts rescue plan for Australia's universities
Plans to fly international students into Australia in time for the new semester later this month have collapsed due to a coronavirus outbreak that's engulfed the country's second-most populous state.
University of New South Wales to cut 493 jobs and merge faculties
The University of New South Wales has slashed 493 jobs, citing an estimated $30-40m revenue hit from proposed university funding changes among the causes of its financial hardship. It comes as the regional education minister conceded the government may need to fix the package to address concerns it could push prospective regional students to move to the city and harm regional mental health services.
Australian universities face an estimated $16bn black hole from Covid-19 due to a massive drop-off in international student numbers.
Almost half of Australian PhD students considering disengaging from studies due to pandemic
Study finds 5% of PhD students are currently or about to experience homelessness and 11% are skipping meals…Fifty-three per cent of the 1,020 students surveyed had their employment negatively affected by the pandemic, 75% said they expected to experience financial hardship, and almost a fifth said they were already, or anticipated being, unable to pay bills or buy medicines.
The Briefing: how will Melbourne's second wave impact Australia's international education sector?
Australian universities: In short, universities are desperate to bring students back to Australia as soon as possible, salvage their international reputation and research ties, and make up for financial damage following the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent restrictions; universities have cited shortfalls of between $44-$115 million, and Universities Australia modelling suggests a total $3 billion-$4.81 billion fall in 2020 revenues. Subsequent wage cuts, wage freezes, lay-offs and restructuring have been further complicated by a fraught, ultimately-failed NTEU jobs deal, and a controversial - and costly - plan to restructure course fees. While some students have been able to undertake online learning with Australian universities, representatives such as Monash vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner issued a warning in The Australian that the latest deferral risks permanently losing students to Canada, Britain and European universities:
Many students continue to study with us online from their overseas location, but with the expectation that they will be able to return to on-campus education. These students show incredible loyalty and trust and we should reciprocate with flexibility to support this cohort. If international students are not able to return to campus in Australia, we risk them turning to the many other places in the world that would welcome them on to their campuses and to damage the reputation of Australia as a welcoming, open destination for people to study, work and live.
Nationals minister urges government to address university concerns about funding overhaul
Nationals frontbencher Andrew Gee has urged the government to address regional universities' concerns the proposed shake-up of higher education funding could have unintended consequences for communities outside the major cities.
‘No fixed timeline’ for the return of international students, says Education Minister
International students enrolled at Australian universities who are stuck overseas will have to wait a bit longer as it is still uncertain when will Australia’s borders reopen.
Austrade regional market update on the impact of COVID-19 (as at 14 July 2020)
South African education agents have noted that there is still a keen interest from South Africans to study in Australia, as soon as borders reopen. There is interest in doing online courses in the interim, but the intention is still to travel to Australia to study.
Monash University to cut 277 jobs as slump in international students bites
Monash University has revealed it will cut 277 jobs due to a projected $350m revenue shortfall in 2020, as international student revenue declines hit university bottom lines.
Suppression versus elimination doesn't answer the more serious question - when do the borders open?
[A]t what point, and how, will Australia reopen its borders? The elimination strategy requires closed borders until a vaccine is found, but suppression also relies on keeping foreign arrivals to an absolute minimum -- particularly after the Victorian failure, and particularly given other states have said they can't handle the quarantine requirements from even the return of expatriate Australians at the moment. Over a million people work in the higher education and tourism sectors, both of which rely heavily on foreign students and tourists, who provide $60 billion worth of exports each year (not to mention an abundance of easily-exploited labor for avaricious industries like retail, hospitality and horticulture).
Australia was a coronavirus success story. Now, an outbreak is prompting new lockdowns.
Australia initially contained its coronavirus outbreak so well that there were several days in May in which the entire country’s daily number of new cases was in just the single digits, and the country began to reopen. But thanks to a new outbreak, the daily numbers are back in the hundreds — and once again, shutdowns are starting.
'COVID normal': Daniel Andrews feels the heat over a crisis without end
Any way you cut it, restricting the movement for a further six weeks-plus of 5.1 million people in Australia's second most populous state is a crisis. It will crimp Victoria's society and the economy. Melbourne and its environs are home to one-fifth of Australia's jobs. The city is the economic engine of a state that makes up a quarter of national GDP. Estimates of the economic cost to Australia from Melbourne's lockdown range from $1 billion to $2 billion per week.
The long-term costs are unknowable. Will foreign students, the state's number one export earner, ever come back to Victorian universities? How many cafes, restaurants, theatres, event spaces will never reopen? How many private sector workers will be thrown out of work when JobKeeper ends?
Biotechs testing the pathways of success
"Many Western governments are turning to mass testing for the coronavirus, hoping that quickly isolating more new carriers will halt its spread and allow the reopening of their economies," he says. "With the economic cost of lockdowns rising, health and government officials in Europe and other countries are looking to follow the example of South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, where millions of people have been tested."
More than 2 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Australia alone, according to the federal Department of Health. But this pales in comparison to the US, where more than 31 million tests have been conducted, according to John Hopkins University.
Remote learning remains for university students
Federation University had been planning for the gradual return of more staff and students to campus at the start of semester two, but the recent growth in locally acquired COVID-19 cases and community transmission across metropolitan Melbourne has forced them to change plans and continue with remote learning. A university spokesperson said staff and students would predominantly continue to work from home and study online, excepting limited practical and skills-based teaching and limited research laboratory work. There are now no plans to resume more regular face to face classes until at least mid September.
Australia to restart granting visas to international students to lift struggling university sector
Government announces current student visa holders studying online outside Australia due to Covid-19 will also be allowed to count study towards work visa.
Australian government to resume granting visas to international students
International students who are worried about getting their Australian student visas can heave a sigh of relief. The Australian government has announced five major visa changes to support international students amidst the pandemic.
Students head back to school amid coronavirus nerves
Health authorities are confident hygiene and social distancing measures will reduce the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks in schools as NSW students return to class for term three. The NSW Department of Education will press ahead with the easing of restrictions in public schools, including allowing special religious education volunteers back onto campus, and the resumption of inter-school competitions and work experience. Some principals said they were nervous students' return would exacerbate COVID-19 outbreaks in south-west Sydney, particularly after a cluster at Al-Taqwa College in Melbourne led to 173 cases.
'Not immune': Universities prepare for more job losses
Thousands of university staff across Australia are bracing for further job losses in the coming months as the sector grapples with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
Why the uni fee hike makes no sense
Education Minister Dan Tehan recently proposed to change how the government subsidises university degrees. Under his plans, students will be incentivised to study degrees in targeted areas of job growth such as STEM and agriculture through fee reductions. This is to come at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Does this sound too good to be true? That just might be because it is.
Australian PM: ‘no special deal’ for universities on bailouts
While universities have been made to jump through extra hoops, Scott Morrison says they are being treated like any other billion-dollar business
MIL-Evening Report: Coronavirus: how likely are international university students to choose Australia over the UK, US and Canada?
Australian universities are suffering revenue and job losses due to the current and projected loss of international students. A Mitchell Institute report has estimated the sector may lose up to A$19 billion in the next three years, while modelling from Universities Australia shows more than 20,000 jobs are at risk over six months, and more after that…US universities no longer seem to be nearly as strong competitors for international students . While the number of new COVID-19 cases has bumpily fallen in Australia, Canada and the UK, they have been increasing in the US .
Australian government has no modelling on effect of university fee hikes, official reveals
It is not clear if recent funding changes will encourage students to study science instead of humanities, the Covid-19 parliamentary inquiry hears.
Future shock: how Australia's universities are changing after the coronavirus cataclysm
Shaken by the Covid-19 induced collapse in international student revenue, campuses are buzzing with ideas of revival
Suppression versus elimination doesn’t answer the more serious question — when do the borders open?
[A]t what point, and how, will Australia reopen its borders? The elimination strategy requires closed borders until a vaccine is found, but suppression also relies on keeping foreign arrivals to an absolute minimum -- particularly after the Victorian failure, and particularly given other states have said they can't handle the quarantine requirements from even the return of expatriate Australians at the moment. Over a million people work in the higher education and tourism sectors, both of which rely heavily on foreign students and tourists, who provide $60 billion worth of exports each year (not to mention an abundance of easily-exploited labor for avaricious industries like retail, hospitality and horticulture).
Universities could lose 30,000 jobs as COVID-19 hits overseas enrolments
Peak industry association Universities Australia has previously warned that 21,000 full-time university jobs are at risk, with big-name universities like the University of New South Wales (493 job losses), Monash (277), and Melbourne (300) already putting a number on likely losses. But National Tertiary Education Union president Alison Barnes said “that 21,000 figure doesn’t include casuals, many of whom were let go as soon as the pandemic hit”. “If you count those, the figure could be more like 30,000,” she said.
It comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a $2 billion funding package for vocational education but ignored universities, which are ineligible for JobKeeper as most have not suffered a large enough fall in revenue.
'Dickensian conditions' await future learners if international student income is lost
The next generation of Australian university students will be educated in conditions reminiscent of a Charles Dickens novel if international students remain locked out of the country, a Queensland parliamentary inquiry has heard.
It's masked, monitored and sanitised, but life is returning to Sydney's university campuses
Life will return to Macquarie University's campus from Monday, as staff return to the office and almost two-thirds of students return to face-to-face learning. As the spring semester begins, lectures will continue to be held online but many tutorials, seminars and small group activities will be held in person, and staff will be expected to head back to the office for part of the working week. "We expect around 60 per cent of students will elect to return to face-to-face learning activities on campus in Session 2," Vice Chancellor Bruce Dowton told students in a statement. The University of Technology Sydney will also begin bringing students back from Monday, albeit in smaller numbers than Macquarie
The year my campus broke: first-year university students lament the change they never had
Sophie Paras was expecting her first year of educational liberation to be all about discovery: new friends, new independence, new environment – plenty of fun. Her taste of campus freedom lasted three hours: "That night we got the email saying you're not coming to uni for the rest of the semester."
Quite serious': International student visa applications plummet
International student visa applications to Australia have plunged by more than a third with growing fears the sector will take up to five years to recover. Federal government figures reveal student visa applications from China are down by 20 per cent and 33.5 per cent overall for the 2019-2020 financial year. Applications from Nepal dropped 61 per cent and those from India by 47 per cent, putting further pressure on Australia's $40 billion a year international student sector amid COVID-19 restrictions.
Australia’s graduate work visa scheme attracts international students to our universities. Is it enough?
The Australian government recently announced it will resume granting visas to international students in a move to push forward with international education. This means when borders reopen, many students will already have visas to come to Australia. Current and new students, studying online with an Australian university, while overseas due to COVID-19, will also be able to count that study towards their graduate working visa in Australia. The temporary graduate visa (subclass 485) allows international students to stay in Australia after they graduate for two to four years to gain work experience.
MIL-Evening Report: Grattan on Friday: Australia holds its breath as Victoria struggles with the virus
Morrison, who only recently declared everyone a Melburnian, now insists there’s not a national COVID “second wave”, just a “Victorian wave”. But he acknowledges Victoria’s disaster not only directly drags down the national economy (of which the state is nearly a quarter), but also delivers a much wider hit by affecting behaviour elsewhere.