China travel ban costly for students and institutions
The loss of international students from China due to the travel ban could have a ‘‘very significant financial impact’’ on educational institutions.
The Government imposed an arrival ban on Sunday on any foreign nationals who have travelled from or through China.
New Zealand International Students’ Association national president Sabrina Alhady said the travel ban would greatly affect the sector.
The association called for the Government to allow people on long-term visas who had returned home for the summer holidays to travel to New Zealand and selfquarantine.
More than 36,000, or one third, of New Zealand’s international students are Chinese nationals.
Alhady said the sudden decision left international students with little time to make arrangements with their institutions, Immigration New
Zealand and providers.
Even though they could not travel they still had to pay for visas, tuition fees and accommodation leases.
Immigration NZ is not refunding fees for approved visa applications.
‘‘It is largely questionable that Immigration New Zealand is allowed to retain roughly $10 million in application fees when students are banned from entering the country,’’ Alhady said.
‘‘Not only does the failure to adequately respond and provide support to international students destroy New Zealand’s image as an international education destination, it highlights how international students are further being treated as cash cows and are expected to make payments despite the crisis being out of their control.’’
She called for educational institutions to change their academic calendars to accommodate
accommodation international students affected by the travel ban. They should also provide Chinese students with sufficient academic support, and assist international students who had already arrived but were in isolation for 14 days, she said.
Burnside High School principal Phil Holstein said 77 of the school’s more than 200 international fee-paying students were from China.
Eighteen of them were still in China. The school had received emails from students anxious that they were missing out on the start of term, he said.
The school was planning how it could help the students catch up, and seeking advice about the financial implications of the travel ban for both the students and the school.
He said some host families had refused to take students here from China during the 14-day isolation period but the school had been able to find other families to take them.
Victoria University vicechancellor Grant Guilford said the university was directly contacting all its China-based students.
‘‘We are encouraging them to continue to enrol and will be offering as much flexibility as possible regarding their enrolment date and course start date,’’ he said.
‘‘International students affected by the virus will not be charged a penalty if they are not able to pay their fees on time.’’
About 800 of the university’s approximately 3700 international fulltime equivalent students are from China.
‘‘The ban has the potential to have a very significant financial impact on the university and the city – tens of millions of dollars each year for a number of years,’’ Guilford said.