HOW ARE AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES SUPPORTING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS?

As many international students worry about job loss and financial instability due to the coronavirus pandemic, many Australian universities have come forward committing more than $110 million in student hardship support.
While announcing arrangements for various temporary visa holders in Australia in the wake of the travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, Immigration minister Alan Tudge has committed that the government would talk to the international education sector to look at providing additional support for international students.
Last week Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that "if they're not in a position to support themselves, then there is the alternative for them to return to their home countries."
However, many international students say they're in extreme stress and hardship after losing their jobs and in some cases, accommodation, with no entitlement to government support and no means of returning home.
Here is a list of support offered by major universities: (Click here for Uni. details...)
- Deakin University
- Australian National University
- Monash University
- Charles Sturt University, Sydney
- University of Canberra
- University of Technology, Sydney
- Edith Cowan University
- Curtin University
- Victoria University
- Australian Catholic University
- Macquarie University
- Charles Darwin University
- Flinders University
- Swinburne University of Technology
- The University of New Castle
- University of South Australia
- University of Western Australia
- University of Adelaide
- Murdock University
- University of New South Wales
- University of Southern Queensland
- University of Queensland
- University of Tasmania
- Western Sydney University
- University of Wollongong
- University of Sydney
- La Trobe University
- Griffith University
Many individual universities have come forward announcing various mechanisms to support international students during this time of hardship.
Altogether, universities have committed $110 million as a hardship fund for international students, led by the $25 million package by Deakin University.