Plan to bring Chinese students back

AUCKLAND: A plan is under way to have charter flights bring thousands of Chinese international students back to New Zealand, but this can only go ahead if it gets Government approval.

The travel ban put in place in February to stop the spread of Covid19 has prevented more than 11,000 Chinese students returning to New Zealand to resume their studies.

John Chisholm, a businessman in the educational book industry, has been in talks with Air New Zealand and booked charter flights to bring students back by July, in time for the start of the second semester at universities.

But Education Minister Chris Hipkins, while acknowledging the challenges the education sector is facing, said any change was still some time away.

More than half of those stuck in China, about 6700, are enrolled with universities, 2200 are school pupils and 1100 are with polytechnics.

‘‘We have been in talks with Air New Zealand to charter an aircraft to fly students from Shanghai to Auckland, and this can happen very quickly if we can get government approval and clear instructions on immigration and quarantine protocols,’’ Mr Chisholm said.

Without these international students, universities stood to lose upwards of $170 million in fees.

Mr Chisholm, a director of Campus Books, said like universities and many other education providers here, his business — which publishes, sells and distributes educational books — was also reliant on international students to make a profit.

He said the students could easily meet the Health Ministry’s guidelines on managed isolation once they arrived and be put either in hotels or in residences of universities or tertiary institutions.

His team will also organise ongoing medical checks and supervision of the students until such time they are cleared to return to their classes.

Mr Hipkins said providers and education agencies had started early planning about what the return of international students could look like.

‘‘We need to see robust, hard quarantine plans from providers that satisfy our public health requirements before we partially open our borders to international students,’’ he said. — The New Zealand Herald