They are not sweating on all 40 000 students  from China getting here for the start of semester (CMM Monday and yesterday).

Western Sydney U VC Barney Glover, wearing his hat as NSW VC Committee Chair says, “we don’t have plans to restart charter flights although we are investigating the viability and costs in case it becomes necessary.”

The VCs already know how to do this, having organised charter-flight returns in the depth of the pandemic, (Dirk Mulder in CMM, September 28 2021).

And Universities Australia chief, Catriona Jackson points out the Chinese Government has “displayed quite substantial flexibility around (students) having to be here on the first day.”

But what does concern NSW VC is the availability and affordability of student accommodation, “an increasingly critical concern particularly given the very robust rebound this year of inbound international student numbers.”