The Commonwealth is making Australia attractive for international students for when things open up

Initiatives in yesterday’s announcement by Education Minister Dan Tehan and Human Services Minister Alan Tudge include;

* no charge for international students who need a further visa because COVID-19 prevented them completing studies

*  people with visas studying on-line outside Australia can count that towards requirements for a post-completion work visa

* additional time to submit English language test results

* visas will start being issued off-shore, (CMM, June 1 2020) believes this started some weeks back

“We have been guided by the principles that the health of Australians is key, but that international students should not be further disadvantaged by COVID-19,” the ministers state.

Which explains exactly what ministers can do. For all the warnings that the industry could disappear, no government is going to risk a spike in COVID-19 being attributed to international education arrivals.

And the industry appears to accept it – response across the sector yesterday was uniformly positive.