Fears for the future of Australian universities with widespread job losses and cutbacks expected due to plunge in number of foreign students during coronavirus lockdown
- 21,000 jobs and $23billion in export income could be lost due to the plunge
- The full-fee paying international student market took a hit amid the pandemic
- The university sector is calling for the government to extend interest-free loans
- The University of NSW predicted between $500million and $700milion in losses
- Universities are seeking low-interest loans from banks to help them stay afloat
- Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID
Australian universities are begging for more government funding to combat looming job losses and cutbacks due to the plummet in the number of foreign students during the coronavirus crisis.
Up to 20,000 jobs across 39 tertiary institutions were considered at risk as revenues collapsed due chiefly to the loss of international students.
The institutions have become increasingly reliant upon international students, with numbers put at around 650,000 or over a quarter of all students, and contributing the lion's share of revenue at some universities.
Restrictions on entry for some students during the COVID-19 crisis have imperiled those revenues, prompting the university sector to call on the Morrison Government to extend interest-free loans to offset massive cuts to 2020 and future budgets.
University of New South Wales vice-chancellor Ian Jacobs warned the fallout from the education sector could impact other parts of the nation's economy.
The University of New South Wales has predicted between $500million and $700milion will be lost
The full-fee paying international student market has taken a big hit amid the pandemic and restrictions on travel in place to stop the spread of the virus
'There is the risk of a downward spiral, where we are forced to lay off staff because of the financial cash flow crisis and that, of course, means then our educational offering suffers even more,' he told The Guardian.
'Then students don't want to come and international students don't return and we have to lay off more staff. So there is a real immediate crisis.'
The University of New South Wales has predicted between $500million and $700million will be lost.
'I am hoping that as the scale of the crisis becomes clearer, the treasurer will make changes and include us in the charities provisions,' Mr Jacobs said.
The federal government will keep its funding to universities at the promised $18billion for the year even if domestic student numbers drop.
It is also creating a new online short-course qualification with funding for an extra 20,000 places, and is delaying administrative fee increases.
Education Minister Dan Tehan said this will help universities while also helping Australians who have lost their jobs or want to retrain.
Universities Australia estimates there will still be 21,000 jobs lost across the country's 39 institutions over the next six months
But Universities Australia estimates there will still be 21,000 jobs lost across the country's 39 institutions over the next six months - although it says the number would have been even higher without the funding guarantee.
'Individual universities are already cutting costs across the board through very substantial reductions in operational spending, deferral of vital capital works, and reductions in senior staff salaries,' chair Deborah Terry said.
'However, this will be nowhere near enough to cover what we conservatively estimate as a revenue decline of between $3 billion and $4.6 billion.'
And despite being registered not-for-profits, universities won't be able to access the JobKeeper allowance under the same rules as other charities, instead needing to take a much bigger hit to their turnover before becoming eligible.
Professor Terry said universities were seeking low-interest loans from banks to help them through the difficult time.
The National Tertiary Education Union said the help on offer so far amounted to hardly anything because it was money the government and universities had already budgeted for.
'This will not plug the gaping hole in university finances left by the drop in international student income,' the union's national president Alison Barnes said.
Ms Barnes was equally sceptical of the extra short course places, saying they were unlikely to come with any extra funding other than what it cost to run them.
'We dispute the minister's claim that this funding will offset universities' losses from international students,' she said.
