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COVID-19 Impact: Discussion and Questions

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
With regards to COVID-19 affecting international student entry, do you reckon unis will be shifting those positions to domestic students or are they just going to accept less applicants in general? I wanna hear people's thoughts on this!
Very unlikely. I don’t actually see international student entry into medicine being affected enough for schools to not meet their quota, but if it is, they’ll need to shift all places to domestic FFPs rather than CSPs.
 
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chinaski

Regular Member
^^This. Schools can't switch full fee paying international spots into Commonwealth-subsidised places for domestics autonomously. Furthermore, it's questionable whether they'd have any desire to do so to in the long run, given the profit they make from the internationals - this is not a market they're going to want to relinquish easily.
 
The JCU Med 2021 applicant form under the important dates mentions interviews held at JCU Townsville campus or online’, UWA have said on their website that if interviews are unable to be carried out, the SJT of UCAT could be used in candidate selection.
This remains an evolving area, for example, I’m an anaesthetist at a public hospital. Normally we have 2 sittings of our Primary exam, followed by a viva (face to face) exam 6 weeks later. Those who sat in Feb/March in their own states have not sat their vivas, usually held in Melbourne. After consultation with the trainees, it was decided to continue with the 2nd sitting and have them all present for the viva exams in Melbourne. These involves a bunch of Oz/NZ examiners as well as cohorts of Oz/NZcandidates over 3 days.
As of 31/7/20, ANZCA (Anaesthetic college of Oz and NZ) moved the face to face exams to Sydney for all the non-Vic Aussies, with the Victorians to do them in their home state a month later. Kiwis will have their exams in Auckland, NZ. I spoke to the ex-president, they are nervous about doing them online for a number of reasons. So at this stage, it will involve for eg Vic examiners examining Vic candidates etc.
It could change again.
ANZCA have updated their advice, the face to face exams will be held in state hubs, wherever possible, now in November. They’re investigating the possibility of technology assisted exams too as some states have insufficient examiners to examine all their candidates. Normally there is a maximum number of exam attempts, they are allowing an extra one without penalty for 2020. Also they can withdraw without penalty if unable to travel or sickness reasons.
 
I’d say you’re in a very good position for a WSU interview but UNSW is highly unlikely. Best of luck :)
Thanks heaps to Both Crow and LMG! for your fast responses! Absolute Legends.
Was wondering, given the whole COVID situation probably continuing well into next year, and international students not being able to get into Australia (due to closed borders), is there a chance that universities will accept more national applicants, to make up for the international students they’re losing in 2021?
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
Thanks heaps to Both Crow and LMG! for your fast responses! Absolute Legends.
Was wondering, given the whole COVID situation probably continuing well into next year, and international students not being able to get into Australia (due to closed borders), is there a chance that universities will accept more national applicants, to make up for the international students they’re losing in 2021?
Discussed elsewhere (I'll tag you in the thread where it's discussed before moving these posts) but the short answer is no.
 

pec3010

Lurker
Hi are there anyone that is a NZ citizen that has been offered, accepted and planning to go to Australia for 2021? Have you sorted out how you will cross the border to enter Australia? At the moment applying for exemption through compassionate and compelling reasons to highlight the intention of 4 years of study may be the only option... Unless we get a Trans-Tasman travel bubble going, but who know if that will actually happen anytime soon.

Any thoughts?
 

dotwingz

Google Enthusiast
Moderator
I believe NZ students apply on the same timeline as domestic students so I doubt you'll find anyone who has been offered and accepted. I think your best bet would be hoping for online interviews, which doesnt seem too unlikely given that residents of Australia are going to have a tough time travelling aswell.
 
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BoarVessel

Member
Valued Member
Hey everyone! I'm an international student who had got an offer from WSU for the 2021 intake but later got a UNSW offer which I accepted. However, I had not yet declined the WSU offer and just yesterday I received an email from WSU saying that my offer had been retracted since I'm currently offshore and since the COVID restrictions on international travel expected to continue until late next year, I won't be able to attend in-person classes. They cited that due to this reason and the nature of this course, my accreditation would be affected and hence they retracted my offer and that they are willing to consider me for 2022 entry. Thankfully, UNSW said that the first 2 years of their program can be done fully online.

Tbh I'm really disappointed that I won't be able to come to Australia for so long despite paying $500,000 and willing to quarantine and undergo testing. I understand and respect this decision but I cannot deny it really hurts my heart. I just wanted to let everyone know of this development.
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Hey everyone! I'm an international student who had got an offer from WSU for the 2021 intake but later got a UNSW offer which I accepted. However, I had not yet declined the WSU offer and just yesterday I received an email from WSU saying that my offer had been retracted since I'm currently offshore and since the COVID restrictions on international travel expected to continue until late next year, I won't be able to attend in-person classes. They cited that due to this reason and the nature of this course, my accreditation would be affected and hence they retracted my offer and that they are willing to consider me for 2022 entry. Thankfully, UNSW said that the first 2 years of their program can be done fully online.

Tbh I'm really disappointed that I won't be able to come to Australia for so long despite paying $500,000 and willing to quarantine and undergo testing. I understand and respect this decision but I cannot deny it really hurts my heart. I just wanted to let everyone know of this development.

Thank you for the update and that's really disappointing to hear. I was under the impression that the government was intending to facilitate arrival of international students so fingers crossed the situation changes before the UNSW first year kicks off next year and you are able to enter the country and attend your studies in person (assuming that UNSW is intending to carry out in person studies for local students - which I guess remains to be seen).
 

someday

Regular Member
Sorry to hear that mate BoarVessel , praying that UNSW holds through on their promise for you :(

On a slight tangent though, if WSU isn't going to be accepting their ~20 international students this year, wouldn't this have a major impact on their income? especially since international student fees tend to be much higher than domestic
 

garmonbozia

Membered Value
Valued Member
On a slight tangent though, if WSU isn't going to be accepting their ~20 international students this year, wouldn't this have a major impact on their income? especially since international student fees tend to be much higher than domestic
The entire university sector is experiencing a loss of funding from international students in general. It's not a phenomenon limited to medical schools.
 

BoarVessel

Member
Valued Member
On a slight tangent though, if WSU isn't going to be accepting their ~20 international students this year, wouldn't this have a major impact on their income? especially since international student fees tend to be much higher than domestic

On-Shore internationals can still attend tho. However, I don't see Canadians coming to Australia any time soon (A lot of international med students in Australia are Canadian). I live in India and Canada just opened up their borders fully to Indian international students despite both countries registering such a huge number of cases. Canada claims that it's just not economically feasible to keep their borders closed to international students and that they feel the only way to combat corona is mandatory quarantine upon arrival. And since a vaccine is honestly a long way off (from making to distribution can take 2-3 years) and there are doubts whether if it will ever even be effective, its ok to resume international education (not travel tho cause quarantine of 2 weeks for a 2-week vacation is non-sense)

A LOT of international students are rejecting Australia now since the UK, Canada, and even the USA are currently allowing students into them and have a comparable quality of education. It'll take a long long time before they'll want to go to Australia again since they don't plan to open up till next year-end. Not to say they'll stop cause they never will but numbers will def be reduced.
I can't deny my bias but I think there should be an option where if a student is willing to pay for both a 2-3 week quarantine and then testing as well, they should be allowed to enter.
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
On-Shore internationals can still attend tho. However, I don't see Canadians coming to Australia any time soon (A lot of international med students in Australia are Canadian). I live in India and Canada just opened up their borders fully to Indian international students despite both countries registering such a huge number of cases. Canada claims that it's just not economically feasible to keep their borders closed to international students and that they feel the only way to combat corona is mandatory quarantine upon arrival. And since a vaccine is honestly a long way off (from making to distribution can take 2-3 years) and there are doubts whether if it will ever even be effective, its ok to resume international education (not travel tho cause quarantine of 2 weeks for a 2-week vacation is non-sense)

A LOT of international students are rejecting Australia now since the UK, Canada, and even the USA are currently allowing students into them and have a comparable quality of education. It'll take a long long time before they'll want to go to Australia again since they don't plan to open up till next year-end. Not to say they'll stop cause they never will but numbers will def be reduced.
I can't deny my bias but I think there should be an option where if a student is willing to pay for both a 2-3 week quarantine and then testing as well, they should be allowed to enter.

I think it's been complicated by the different timing for the start of the school year between here and those countries you've indicated. Australia, I fully imagine, will facilitate the arrival of international students by some means (it has been flagged by ScoMo), but they haven't made a call on it yet as it's still quite a long way away, whereas the school year starts about now in those other countries, so they've been forced into the decision earlier, if that makes sense?
 

BoarVessel

Member
Valued Member
I think it's been complicated by the different timing for the start of the school year between here and those countries you've indicated. Australia, I fully imagine, will facilitate the arrival of international students by some means (it has been flagged by ScoMo), but they haven't made a call on it yet as it's still quite a long way away, whereas the school year starts about now in those other countries, so they've been forced into the decision earlier, if that makes sense?

Yes, I get your point. It just the treasurer's announcement of closing till late 2021 that really scared me. Hopefully, Australia can figure it out by then. Good luck to everyone applying as a domestic applicant :)
 

chinaski

Regular Member
I can't deny my bias but I think there should be an option where if a student is willing to pay for both a 2-3 week quarantine and then testing as well, they should be allowed to enter.

Aside from the cost of testing, that's what Australians returning to the country have to pay for already. Essentially the issue is flight caps. Australians wanting to return home are being delayed and put at massive financial disadvantage given the flight caps. If the government gives a golden handshake to overseas students to enter the country ahead of (or at the expense of) Australians who are already trying to get home, this could prove to be really, really bad optics for the government.
 

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BoarVessel

Member
Valued Member
Aside from the cost of testing, that's what Australians returning to the country have to pay for already. Essentially the issue is flight caps. Australians wanting to return home are being delayed and put at massive financial disadvantage given the flight caps. If the government gives a golden handshake to overseas students to enter the country ahead of (or at the expense of) Australians who are already trying to get home, this could prove to be really, really bad optics for the government.

Yes, I read that just a few moments ago. Again it's totally understandable that the gov wants to prioritize its own citizens over international students. However, the next massive "intake" of international students is still 4 months away and hopefully by then most Australians are back in their own country and our return can be facilitated.
 

chinaski

Regular Member
Yes, I read that just a few moments ago. Again it's totally understandable that the gov wants to prioritize its own citizens over international students. However, the next massive "intake" of international students is still 4 months away and hopefully by then most Australians are back in their own country and our return can be facilitated.

If you look at the current weekly flight caps, and then consider the amount of Australians overseas who have registered with DFAT as wanting to return alone (not even taking into account those who haven't registered), you'll soon realise the current demand far outstrips supply.
 
Any international students studying dentistry at the moment? I've got an offer to study dentistry from 2021 but the offer letter says that I need to be physically in Melbourne, and I am currently back in my home country. I have no clue whether border restrictions will be eased by Feb, and was wondering how other international students are thinking about it.
 

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