Victoria schools: how Covid-19 lockdown will affect education, remote learning and childcare
…Under Melbourne’s new stage four restrictions, study at TAFE and uni must be done remotely. In tertiary education settings, on-site attendance will be permitted where it is for certain medical and other research, and care for animals, agriculture and horticulture. Tertiary education facilities will also be able to have people on-site for cleaning, essential maintenance and security, and to provide practical student support that cannot be done remotely.
Cash carrot to lure students
OUT-OF-TOWN university students will receive a bonus worth more than $3500 if they opt to study on the Gold Coast. Study Gold Coast is offering the carrot to 200 domestic and international students in a bid to reinvigorate a COVID-hit education sector. The first-of-its-kind Your Next Move campaign will pay students' accommodation for 10 weeks when they move [to] the Gold Coast.
The bid comes off the back of a mass downturn in the education sector. Because of COVID border closures many universities have suffered funding losses of about 30 per cent and staff cuts. The education sector employs almost 30,000 people on the Gold Coast. The remaining 300,000 international students still in Australia have become a particularly coveted market for the sector, with fees for international students worth about three times that of domestic students.
Australian universities in financial trouble as flow of international students dries up
Overseas student visa applications have plunged by more than 30 per cent following coronavirus travel bans, with higher education experts expecting the downturn to impact Australian universities for several years.
University of Melbourne cuts 450 jobs due to projected losses of $1bn over three years
Vice-chancellor says reduced student enrolment, research income and commercial revenue from coronavirus pandemic drove decision
Global virus cases top 18 million as Australian city imposes curfew
Australia's Victoria state imposed fresh, sweeping restrictions on Sunday, including a curfew in Melbourne for the next six weeks, a ban on wedding gatherings, and an order that schools and universities go back online in the coming days.
Travel ban, no visa services halt students in their tracks
… another student Sakshi Kulkarni has received admission to a university in Australia for a course in communications. Kulkarni said, “I have been taking classes online and as soon as the travel restrictions are lifted I will join the university. I have paid for the hostel and it has gone waste for almost two months. I have written to the university if they could waive it but I doubt if that would be allowed.”
Indian students offered updated information on Australian study visas
A student visa information webinar will take place on Wednesday 5th August by Insider Guides for Indian students who are interested in studying at an Australian university. …
Topics to be covered at the webinar include: Working rights of international students - Fee waivers - OSHC extensions - Application processing times - Post-study work visas
Schools Can Reopen Safely If Precautions in Place, Australian Study Shows
Safeguards such as contact tracing and swift isolation of cases of COVID-19 could be the key to reopening U.S. schools safely this September, a study from Australia shows. In the study, which involved thousands of schools or preschools, a total of 27 kids or teachers were determined to have been present in schools while they were infected with the new coronavirus. But because of proper social distancing, hand-washing and contact tracing[1], infections spread to only 18 more people out of a school[2] population of thousands, said a team led by pediatrician Dr. Kristine Macartney from the University of Sydney.
She directs Australia's National Centre for Immunization Research and Surveillance. "Our findings are the most comprehensive data that we have yet on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools and early years education settings," Macartney said in news release from the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. The findings were published in the journal on Aug. 3.
'They didn't close the deal': New Zealand looks on in horror at Melbourne Covid-19 crisis
Weeks ago they were praised globally as two countries acting in tandem to eliminate the spread of Covid-19. But on Monday, New Zealanders watched in horror as some of their neighbours across the Tasman Sea began their strictest period of Covid-19 lockdown yet after a resurgence of cases – while their own country continued to record good news in the fight against the virus. …
It’s a far cry from the situation in the Australian state of Victoria, where the discovery of hundreds of cases a day prompted bolstered lockdown measures on Sunday, with rules almost as strict as New Zealand’s own stringent shutdown.
The Date When Melbourne Will Know if COVID-19 Lockdown Will End
Epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely of Melbourne University told news.com.au that it will take two to three weeks for authorities to gauge the impact of the current lockdown. ‘The models should be able to show whether Victoria is on track to eliminate the virus in two to three months, which is critical information for policy makers,’ he said. Victoria suffered its worst day of the coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday, with 725 new cases and 15 fatalities, including Australia’s youngest victim – a man in his 30s.
American Exceptionalism-- Under Trump
Australia offers a telling comparison. Like the United States, it is separated from China by an ocean and is run by a conservative leader-- Scott Morrison, the prime minister. Unlike the United States, it put travel restrictions at the center of its virus response. Australian officials noticed in March that the travel restrictions they had announced on Feb. 1 were not preventing the virus from spreading. So they went further. On March 27, Mr. Morrison announced that Australia would no longer trust travelers to isolate themselves voluntarily. The country would instead mandate that everyone arriving from overseas, including Australian citizens, spend two weeks quarantined in a hotel. The protocols were strict. As people arrived at an airport, the authorities transported them directly to hotels nearby. People were not even allowed to leave their hotel to exercise. The Australian military helped enforce the rules. Around the same time, several Australian states with minor outbreaks shut their own borders to keep out Australians from regions with higher rates of infection. That hardening of internal boundaries had not happened since the 1918 flu pandemic, said Ian Mackay, a virologist in Queensland, one of the first states to block entry from other areas.
In the past six weeks, Australia has begun to have a resurgence-- which itself points to the importance of travel rules. The latest outbreak stems in large part from problems with the quarantine in the city of Melbourne. Compared with other parts of Australia, Melbourne relied more on private security contractors who employed temporary workers-- some of whom lacked training and failed to follow guidelines-- to enforce quarantines at local hotels. Officials have responded by banning out-of-state travel again and imposing new lockdowns.
Nationals' revolt grows over Coalition's university funding overhaul
Nationals publicly demand three key changes, saying package’s ‘glaring and potentially detrimental design flaw’ could hurt regional students
With losses set to pass $200m, UTS fears up to 500 jobs could go
Job losses across the university sector could top 30,000 if a safe corridor for foreign students isn't established.
Hope the only word for IELTS, immigration biz
It's a well-known fact that Punjab is a market with a high number of local immigration service providers. With the average intake of students migrating to countries like Canada, US, UK, Australia and New Zealand nosediving due to pandemic, the sector seems cornered.
"Except for Australia and UK, no other country popular for immigration in Punjab, is granting visa. The visa processing for students who had already applied or were studying in the particular country, are being offered with conditions. So, it is going to be a challenge to survive," tells Amit.
Australia is another country eager to process visa for students. “With no Chinese students coming in due to Covid-19, the biggest market for them is India. So, it will be a good time to apply for visas once the process starts and it will be easy to get approval,” he adds.
These are dark days for Australia's universities
Our seats of higher learning are running low on public trust at the same time they’re tussling with a largely hostile federal government.
What we have lost: International education and public diplomacy
Entangling universities with geopolitics can mean a bad student experience and has a far broader cost.
Defence and industry could fund cutting-edge university research with Five Eyes allies
The leverage gained by this strategic bilateral university research partnership could be of enormous value for both countries. The US–Australia alliance holds important ministerial-level meetings involving the Defence Department and DFAT. Expanding this in a manageable way to include a strategic university research alliance would add an important dimension and strengthen the alliance overall. We should have no illusion that China is vigorously shaping and accelerating its domestic university research towards its military and state security apparatus, via its civil–military fusion strategy.
A ‘Five Eyes-friendly’ university sector will open new and substantial sources of funding and help strengthen Australia’s defence and security capabilities and those of our democratic allies. We hope the university sector will embrace the idea. Importantly, within this scheme, government and the university sector would be pulling in the same direction. If asked to ‘do something for your country’ within such a framework, we believe Australian university researchers would respond creatively to embrace a new opportunity.
'If I give up, all my effort is for nothing': international students thrown into Melbourne lockdown despair
Cut off from coronavirus government support and with few immediate job prospects, many students are desperate
Sydney Uni reveals tens of millions in staff underpayments
The underpayments could cost the university more than $30 million as it grapples with big financial losses due to COVID-19.
TAFE gives $92.5b boost to national economy, while costing just $5.7b: report
TAFE has provided a $92.5 billion benefit to the Australian economy, according to a new analysis that recommends a further $2.5 billion investment in wage subsidies for apprentices to help stem the collapse in new positions.
The analysis comes as TAFE NSW joins four universities to form a new jobs taskforce based in western Sydney. The taskforce - which includes the University of NSW, Western Sydney University, the University of Wollongong and University of Newcastle - will work together to provide rapid training and reskilling programs.
COVID-19 restrictions for NSW schools to be tightened
Students must stay within their year groups and inter-school activities will be confined to local communities under tightened guidelines for NSW schools.
International student flights to Australia to restart in September
International students and universities will be forced to pay for travel and quarantine as the government prepares for the first batch of students to arrive.
Australia set to open borders to international students, other visa holders may have to wait longer
After months of speculation around the return of international students, a pilot program would see a small number of overseas students returning to South Australia next month.
International study still remote: UTAS
International students are unlikely to return to Tasmania to study before the end of the year, despite moves on the mainland to restart flights.
South Australia to bring back international students: minister
Australia’s lucrative international education is set to get a boost with the impending arrival of hundreds of students from Asia. Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham said on Sunday that 300 students will arrive in South Australia (SA) as part of a pilot program to restart international education, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
The students will travel to Australia from Singapore in early September and then serve a mandatory two-week quarantine period with all costs to be covered by universities and the students.
They will be the first international students to enter Australia since March.
Birmingham said that SA, which has had only 18 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of July, would be used as a test case for the resumption of international education.
Australia plans to allow return of foreign students; Trial next month aims to reboot international education sector
Australia plans to start allowing foreign students to return from next month as part of a trial that will aim to reboot the country's lucrative international education sector.
The first batch of students will go to the state of South Australia, which has effectively curbed its Covid-19 outbreak. As of yesterday, the state had recorded 23 cases since the beginning of June and had not had a locally transmitted case in 13 days.
The trial will involve flying 300 university students - reportedly mainly from China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore - from Singapore to Adelaide early next month.
The students, like Australian citizens and residents arriving from abroad, will undergo 14 days of quarantine at a hotel, which will be paid for by the universities.
Unis demand government retreat on fee hikes and student failure crackdown
University groups have for the first time detailed their objections to key elements of the government's funding shake-up.
Australian universities plead for fee rises to be scaled back and places increased
A group of Australian universities has called on the Morrison government to scale back the size of proposed fee increases while also warning that the number of student places needs to grow even faster than planned. As the government considers the final shape of its higher education package, which it wants to legislate before the end of this year, the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) network is pushing for changes that would protect students and universities from dramatic changes in fees and funding.
Punitive fees and job cuts: Australian universities have been transformed into giant corporations
The consequences of market policies have done to campuses what they have done everywhere else they’ve been unleashed
Sydney university asks staff to ‘suggest’ how to cut up to 30% of jobs in some faculties
Tertiary education union says university is asking staff and students to pay for a crisis created by lack of government funding
COVID-19 AMA: What The Next Reopening Could Look Like, Vaccine Update And More
Australia makes deal for potential vaccine, says it will be provided free to all citizens. Australia’s PM walked back statement that vaccine will be mandatory.
Why More and More Australians Are Choosing Vocational Education
Vocational courses, offered through the Vocational and Education Training (TAFE) system, are becoming a popular choice for Australians looking for more job security in the wake of COIVD-19. The job landscape is shifting rapidly, and as 62 percent of top-earning occupations require a VET pathway, an increasing number of Australians are signing up for vocational courses.
“Around 4.2 million Australians last year undertook vocational education in its varying forms and around one million went to university,” Minister for Employment Michaelia Cash said in an interview with SBS News. “So for anyone out there saying ‘why should I actually go into VET?’ that’s a pretty good reason why.” She added that COVID-19 has motivated workers to ensure that the skills they have are what employers really want. “As the economy reopens, a lot of these people will transfer back into the workforce but there are also going to be a lot of people whose job is no longer there.”
WHO warns young people are driving virus's spread
"People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the spread," Takeshi Kasai, the WHO's Western Pacific regional director, said at a news briefing on Tuesday. "The epidemic is changing."
More than half of confirmed infections in Australia and the Philippines in recent weeks have been in people younger than 40, WHO officials said, a stark contrast to predominantly older patients from the previous months. …
Because symptoms are often milder in the young, Kasai noted, many are unaware they are infected.
Australian university education predicted to decline amid job cuts and ballooning enrolments
The quality of Australian university courses could drop as soon as the current semester, academics warn, as universities employ fewer staff to teach more students. According to statistics provided to Guardian Australia, student enrolments have already started to rise – even while universities shed staff and billions of dollars of revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
University fee rises: Nationals' deal for psychology and social work to cost other students
Fees for teaching, nursing and allied health to rise to compensate for changes to ‘job-ready graduates’ package
Hundreds of university academics around Australia vote to take unprotected strike action
National Higher Education Network is protesting job cuts, lack of government funding and changes to degrees
Schools learn the lessons from lockdown, want to start and finish earlier
A northern beaches school has proposed the day start at 8.25am and end at 2pm, to allow for self-regulated learning sessions. But some parents worry the move won't suit all students.
Government cuts some uni course fees, locks in funding
Education Minister Dan Tehan has confirmed social work and psychology courses will be spared major fee rises.
Nationals secure fee cuts for social work in changes to uni funding package
Nationals frontbencher Andrew Gee says the junior Coalition partner has secured changes to the government's sweeping university funding overhaul.
Give students hope amid coronavirus mental health crisis, experts urge
The suicides of some year 11 and 12 students have prompted mental health experts to warn that Australia must act quickly to counteract a growing sense of hopelessness among HSC students.
Chinese Students in Australia Head Home as Coronavirus Upends Study
…With Australia already sliding into its worst recession in almost a century, education leaders expect the disappearance of international students to cost billions of dollars. Data on how many international students have left the country this year is not yet available, but anecdotal evidence on departures and data on new enrolments paints a worrying picture. New enrolments of international students, who generally make up about 20% of all university students in Australia, grew by an average of 10% over the past two years. But growth in the first six months of this year was negligible as Australia closed its borders in March to all foreigners because of the pandemic.
Indian students unlikely to return to Australia anytime soon
South Australia is scheduled to reopen its borders to 300 international students under a pilot programme in September, but Indian students will unlikely be part of that flight. According to SBS Punjabi, Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell said Indian students won’t be part of the pilot programmes being considered by the federal and the state governments unless one of those plans propose direct access into India.
Why Australia needs to make a call about living with COVID-19: How a plummeting infection rate is unlikely to set six millions Victorians free from Stage Four lockdown on September 13 - so what IS the 'magic' number?
Three weeks from the supposed end of Stage Four lockdown and Melburnians still have no idea when they can get back to their lives.
Australia's worst-hit state had easily its best day since the second wave of coronavirus with just 116 new cases detected on Monday, then 140 on Tuesday. But Premier Daniel Andrews still refuses to say whether the punishing restrictions will be extended - and how long Stage Three will continue after that.
Border closures 'could become illegal'
Premiers could be under further pressure to reopen their borders as experts say "disproportionate" hard closures could be illegal if coronavirus cases keep declining.
Given the low numbers in states other than Victoria, travel bubbles between states such as WA, South Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory would make sense, according to Monash University constitutional law expert Luke Beck. "The strict border closures where it's keeping everybody out, based on the current situation, seem to be disproportionate," he said. Professor Bruce Thompson, dean of health sciences at Swinburne University, agreed and said there was little evidence to suggest cross-contamination between the states.