by DIRK MULDER

 Last week Minister for Education Chris Hipkins announced NZ will allow 1000 international students to return

The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 internationals studying at bachelor degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began.

The announcement states that the return will commence in stages from April.

If there is one thing we have learnt from 2020 it is that a three to four months period in a COVID-19 context can provide plenty of wriggle room and time for things to change dramatically. This is no more apparent than the past week in Victoria where the Andrew’s government was out talking up the return of international students last Friday followed by saying it will be “incredibly challenging’ to bring them back in 2021.

However, the Kiwi’s should be congratulated for being ambitious and signalling intent to bring back their international cohort at some sort of scale.

What does this mean for Australia?

With the exception of the 63 international students that Charles Darwin University brought in under a pilot arrangement organised between the Territory and Federal governments, Australia is the last of the Anglosphere big five (USA, UK, Australia, Canada, NZ) to move on international arrivals.

Those in the sector have long thought the hard work on making Australia desirable would translate to higher demand once borders do open and this is would be a ‘first mover’ advantage. It now appears this ship has sailed.

Dirk Mulder is CMM’s international education correspondent