Vaccine obstacle for overseas students
Michael is joined by Tim Dodd, the Australian Newspaper’s higher education editor, regarding Australia’s dilemma of wanting international students back, but many have been jabbed with Sinovac, which we don’t recognise as a vaccine.
Mr Dodd writes, ‘why can’t international students arrive in larger numbers next year if the Australian population is substantially vaccinated. As long as the students are also vaccinated and they go through the same quarantine and other medical checks which apply to other arrivals, then what’s the problem?’
‘As it turns out there are several. And unfortunately they are major barriers in the way of an early scale up of international student arrivals.’
‘The first problem is the lack of mutual recognition of vaccines. Students from China, Australia’s largest international education market, are vaccinated with Sinovac or Sinopharm, neither of which are recognised by Australia.’
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