Australia’s eight most prominent universities have dismissed media reports that they are planing to quarantine international students on regional campuses as a result of the federal government’s travel ban.
Since 1 February foreign nationals have been barred from entering Australia within 14 days of leaving China, as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
On Friday, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Australian universities were “drawing up plans to quarantine thousands of international students” on regional campuses or in student accommodation to reduce disruption to the start of semester.
The University of Sydney’s campus in Camden, 50km from its main site, was listed as a potential site.
But Vicki Thompson, the chief executive of the Group of Eight (Go8), told Guardian Australia this was not under consideration by its universities.
The Go8 comprises the University of Sydney, UNSW, ANU, the University of Melbourne, Monash, the University of Queensland, the University of Adelaide and the University of WA.
A spokeswoman for the University of Sydney said it had “no plans to use our Camden campus for isolation purposes”.
Under the current travel restrictions, any student who had left China and had been outside the country for 14 days without showing symptoms would not need to be further quarantined.
International students contributed $34bn to the Australian economy last year, and the sector faces major losses from students cancelling enrolments.
The travel ban has left nearly 100,000 Chinese students with valid visas stranded outside Australia, according to the latest figures from the Department of Home Affairs. Almost 59,000 Chinese international students are in Australia.
As of Friday, there had been 15 confirmed cases of coronavirus across Australia, of which five people had recovered.
Many universities have extended the deadline to enrol for the first semester, or to defer studies for a semester, or are offering online classes.
On Thursday the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, told Radio National there “might be opportunities for some of the universities to provide quarantine for those Chinese students who are coming to Australia” – but did not mention regional campuses.
On Friday, the Go8 said it was implementing other measures to “minimise the disruption to study”.
Thompson said where possible semester one programs could “join seamlessly” to semester two programs, especially for students close to completing their degrees.
Monash University has pushed back the start date of the semester by a week, while more than 4,000 students at the University of Sydney signed a petition to delay theirs by a fortnight.
The University of Sydney said it had arranged temporary accommodation for the “small number of students living in student accommodation that need to self-isolate”.
Financial analysts Moody’s said on Friday that the financial hit of coronavirus and travel restrictions would be “manageable” if it was contained within the next few months.
But it noted that Australian universities were more dependent on international students from China than other OECD countries.
Among the Go8, 60% of international student enrolments are from China, and they represent 40% across all universities.
“If coronavirus is quickly contained – meaning within several months – the effect on Australian universities is likely to be manageable, with revenue deferred (not lost) and no change to credit quality,” Moody’s said.
“However, if the current outbreak is not contained quickly, the revenue effect and drawdown of cash reserves has the potential to be significant.”
The co-secretary of the NSW branch of the National Tertiary Education Union, Michael Thomson, said academics and teachers were worried by universities’ confusing responses to the ban.
“There is concern that university authorities are not being completely clear about what is happening,” he said. “Putting something back two weeks – does that mean a 13-week semester becomes an 11-week semester?
“In a sense the concern is the unknown. It’s almost like policy is being made on the hop.”
On Friday, the NSW NTEU and the University of Sydney’s student representative council organised a protest against the travel ban.
SRC president Liam Donohoe said earlier in the week the travel ban went against the advice of the World Health Organisation and led to international students “losing out on learning, work, relationships and communities” to the extent that they “may never return”.
