A plan to bring international students back to South Australia has been approved by the country’s federal government.

New South Wales in Australia has a submitted a plan to the federal government to bring 250 international students back to the state per fortnight from mid-2021.

Universities Australia's Catriona Jackson has said that Australian universities are set to lose as much as $2 billion in lost revenue this year.

The Australian budget shows the government has ceased the $1bn emergency research funding provided in October, and higher education stakeholders expect the sector to suffer.

The Australian government is looking for input from students, educators and the higher education sector on a new 2021-2030 strategy for international education – Australia’s fourth largest export earner, worth around $40bn a year.

Australia won’t see a return of international students en masse until 2022, according to the federal education minister, Alan Tudge.

Representatives from peak international education sector bodies have come together to meet with the federal government to discuss the crisis in the sector.

Australian higher education institutions lost 17,300 jobs and an estimated $1.8 billion in revenue in 2020, the peak body for the sector Universities Australia has said, and it warns that more losses are on the way.