By DIRK MULDER

 It can’t happen quickly, but it can happen

International education advocates are talking up reactivating the industry, with fee-paying students fronting up in tens of thousands for the start of second semester.

This isn’t going to happen like last year, the politics of the pandemic will prevent it.

But a slow three-step process is possible.

Step One – for a start, campuses could open, sort-of. Education Minister Dan Tehan was adamant on ABC TV’s Insiders programme this is required. Not with a fully-fledged face-to-face teaching model but with an HE version of what is happening in schools, where students are attending and being supervised on-site to learn the remote syllabus. This would work for universities – libraries and learning precincts open to allow students to access superior Internet and other learning resources on campus.

Step Two – opening the borders to students from everywhere is politically impossible, but welcoming students from countries with low-infection rates might be electorally saleable, especially if there is a quarantine process of the kind Australians accept as appropriate for returning locals.

Step Three – letting the states make a call. National cabinet could set the rules and then allow premiers of states where COVID-19 is now low-risk to decide to accept students from countries where the virus is not a crisis. What would not work in NSW or Victoria may appeal in South Australia and Tasmania.

When could it occur? July seems too soon. But universities starting a trimester in September-October might have enough time to put together a pitch that their premiers could sell to Canberra and the other states, and more important, their own electors.

It’s an idea awash with difficulties – but it may be enough of a way forward to appeal to governments who need to kick-start economies, without putting people at big risks.

 

Dirk Mulder is CMM’s international education correspondent