INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS WILL BE WELCOMED BACK TO AUSTRALIA FROM AS EARLY AS JULY UNDER A PILOT PLAN ANNOUNCED BY THE NSW GOVERNMENT.
Under the plan up to 250 students a fortnight will arrive on chartered flights. Universities will foot the bill for quarantine including security and accommodation.
About
50,000 international students are waiting to return to NSW. NSW Treasurer Dominic
Perrottet on Thursday announced the plan, which will initially see 250 students
per fortnight quarantined in specifically approved student accommodation.
Mr
Perrottet said that figure would increase to 500 students per fortnight by the
end of the year and would not interfere with the current hotel quarantine
system.
"Importantly
not one returning Australian will not get a seat on a plane as a result of this
plan," he said.
"We
will be running this alongside the 3,000 returning Australians that come into
our hotel quarantine system every week."
Before
the pandemic, about 250,000 international students were studying in NSW — the
state's second-largest export.
Mr
Perrottet said there were about 50,000 overseas students who were currently
trying to get into NSW. He said it would provide vital job certainty for
100,000 workers in the sector.
"This
is a big win for the NSW economy.
"We
believe that the cost to our economy since the pandemic began particularly
related to the international students is around $5 billion and if we didn't do
anything that cost would grow by the end of next year to $11 billion.
“This is
incredibly important because there is evidence particularly around the world in
places like Canada, the US and the UK that are actively targeting this industry
that NSW relies on so much.”
He said
the pilot program had been approved by NSW Health and NSW Police, and its
proposal to the federal government had received "strong support back"
and would be signed off on in the coming days.
The
student quarantine system, including travel costs, accommodation and security,
will be financed by the university sector, but Mr Perrottet said whether
students were out of pocket for flights would be up to individual universities.
The first international students will arrive in NSW on chartered flights in the
next six to eight weeks before the program later transitions to commercial
flights.
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