By CLAIRE FIELD

Firstly the good news – since last week’s piece was published, it has been heartening to see:

* a moratorium on evictions for residential and commercial tenants for the next six months, helping domestic and international students, staff who work in the sector and many private and not-for-profit providers.

* ASQA and TEQSA responding flexibly to the crisis

* the Tasmanian government providing significant additional funding to unemployed people needing to upskill or reskill during the crisis

* the significant funding initiatives for businesses and their workers being provided by the Commonwealth (and to a lesser extent state governments).

It has been disappointing though to see international students have not yet been a focus for government support; although my twitter feed has been full of institutions actively helping their students – hat tip in particular to CQU.

It has also been disappointing to see other governments have not yet followed Tasmania’s lead and announced additional funding for unemployed people to upskill/reskill. I note Andrew Norton’s recent blogpost ends with his observation that the university sector may need additional funding as international and, potentially, domestic student numbers drop.

I am unsure that domestic student numbers will drop but to my mind the best way to help educational institutions through this crisis is to support them to enrol more domestic students (in both short courses and full qualifications). In doing so the government would be directly helping people affected by this crisis. As Brian Roberts suggests, to fill the job void “the current crisis should be used to develop e-based knowledge to acquire new skills and expertise”.

If you are interested in how COVID-19 is impacting educational institutions around the world make sure you catch the latest episode of the podcast.

 Claire is the host of the “What now? What next? Insights into Australia’s tertiary education sector’ podcast.”