International students should be part of the COVID-19 higher education package: National Union of Students (NUS)

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Jack Guo, Vibhor Bangwal and Ivanku Su.

By SAT News Desk

MELBOURNE, 14 April 2020: The National Union of Students (NUS), the premier body of university students in Australia, while welcoming the Scott Morrison government’s higher education package announced recently, has criticized it’s prioritizing domestic students over international students. The $ 18 million packages, the NUS says was already budgeted.

An NUS media release on 12 April 2020 says: “While this decision gives universities and private providers a small amount of stability during this crisis, this funding guarantee fails to properly safeguard our campuses and the million students and staff who rely on it. There needs to be a significant funding injection to ensure that our sector is able to survive, and our Government must ensure that its COVID-19 response measures supplement and support those in our sector.”

Talking to SAT, Jack Guo, Post Graduate Rep, MONSU Monash Caulfield says, “In this time of crisis, the university and government should provide more support to international students as they have suffered huge financial losses and lost campus experience, for which they came here.”

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“For higher education to survive beyond COVID-19, Jobkeeper must cover universities like they do charities, as some are projected to lose 25% of their funding. For the sake of these students’ wellbeing and the long term viability of our education, the government must give subsidies to international students to ensure they are able to survive COVID-19 and
continue their study,” says the NUS.

NUS delegate Vibhor Bangwal and RMIT Indian students leader says, “During this pandemic where every student is struggling with their studies and situations, the government and universities should provide more support for international students as they are losing their personal and household income, also jobs and struggling with the new study mode as they have to endure huge pressures of life. The new international student who have just arrived weren’t able to enter the university or cope up with their course are thrown into the system without knowledge. In these situations, the government should welcome international students and help them.”

“Higher education was the first sector significantly hit by the COVID-19 crisis. Unless the government makes a commitment to funding and supporting our entire sector, they are running a likely risk of causing generational damage to our universities. tafes, and research. We are calling them to act. The NUS statement says.

In a Facebook post-International student and Education Officer RUSU Akshay Jose says, “The government needs to pay more attention to how COVID-19 is affecting the lives of students, especially international students as we are one of the most valuable communities of students living in Australia.

Ivanka Su, NUS International Students Officer pledges that “During this critical phase, we should have empathy and understand each other rather than blame, or ‘go back to their country’, that is a complete disparage.

The NUS will definitely stand in solidarity with our international counterparts.”

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Neeraj Nanda

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