Perth Universities were alarmed last week when their plans for international students to arrive were overturned by Premier McGowan announcing the state would not open its border on February 5, as previously planned

Murdoch U Interim VC Jane den Hollander summed up the mood when she remarked “safe and structured orientations plans have been developed” on the basis of a February 5 opening. Plus she warned, “any delay will provide universities in the eastern states a competitive advantage, and put Western Australia’s universities on the back foot, not just this year, but for many years to come,” (CMM January 24)

Whether this was enough to change the policy the government had changed, the state government has changed it again. The Australian broke the story to report fully vaxed “returning” international students will be able to enter WA from other states, as long as they quarantine for 14 days.

Permission is set out in a state government directive which includes,

“if a person entered Western Australia before the commencement of these directions, the person must continue to comply with any requirement which still applied to them under the revoked directions immediately before they were revoked to the same extent that the person would if the revoked directions had not been revoked, and, for the avoidance of doubt, if the person fails to comply with a 1 requirement that applied to them under the revoked directions, the person may commit an offence under the Act.”

Perhaps this is also a test of international students’ English language skills. If they  understand that they can handle anything a university sets.

And to test students problem solving skills it is not clear if the change includes 2022 commencers and/or people who have been studying from home since the pandemic started and have never been to Perth.