Australia’s lucrative international education is set to get a boost with the impending arrival of hundreds of students from Asia. Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham said on Sunday that 300 students will arrive in South Australia (SA) as part of a pilot program to restart international education, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The students will travel to Australia from Singapore in early September and then serve a mandatory two-week quarantine period with all costs to be covered by universities and the students.

They will be the first international students to enter Australia since March.

Birmingham said that SA, which has had only 18 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of July, would be used as a test case for the resumption of international education.

Peak body Universities Australia in June revealed that universities could lose up to 16 billion AUD (US$11.4 billion) in revenue by 2023 as a result of the pandemic.

There were more than 500,000 international students in Australia at the start of the pandemic but they have not been eligible for government economic stimulus measures.

(Xinhua)