Universities put major construction projects on ice amid coronavirus financial blow – The Sydney Morning Herald

Who builds buildings? Thats tradespeople. Theres a whole industry sitting around building our facilities. In one of the cases that we have got, one of our universities is starting a major science precinct ... They are slowing that down while they work out what the economic impact [of the travel ban] will be.

One university is understood to be considering postponing a project worth more than $150 million, expecting the saving could match the revenue lost this semester.

In 2017, the most recent year for which comprehensive national data is available, the 12 universities that account for 80 per cent of Chinese students collectively had $1.47 billion worth of property under construction. The largest developments were at the University of Sydney with $318 million, UNSW with $205 million, UniSA with $272 million and Monash University with $165 million.

Some universities, including UNSW and the University of Queensland, are in the midst of major expansion projects that could be affected by the travel restrictions.

The restrictions currently apply until February 29. How they apply to tertiary students will be reviewed in the coming week, after government medical officials advised there was scope for relaxation subject to the virus being contained and strict health protections being in place in Australia.

That will depend on the growth and containment outside of Hubei [the province where the outbreak originated] in mainland China, Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Saturday.

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If allowed into the country, students would need to self-isolate for 14 days with the support of their host universities. The window for students to begin studies on the ground in Australia is rapidly closing, with the teaching semester getting under way and the end of March looming as a critical deadline for enrolments.

Margaret Sheil, vice-chancellor of QUT, which currently has about 1200 international students stuck offshore, said her university was not as exposed as others, but even so a tight operating surplus of around $20 million this year could be wiped out.

The biggest impact in the longer term, if this was to go on, would be less investment in capital, in facilities, she said.

Professor Sheil pointed to the governments abolition of a $3.9 billion education investment fund, from which the dollars were diverted to a fund for natural disaster responses.

We now dont have that kind of co-funding for capital investment and that would be where Id be focusing, because that would be a longer term, sustained response, she said.

We wont be able to invest in facilities for domestic students in the way that we have unless there is some relief there.

Federal education minister Dan Tehan said the travel ban would have an economic impact, but the government wanted to mitigate it and universities were in strong financial positions.

My hope is, in the short term, in the next two to three weeks, we might start to see some breakthroughs which will mean that some of those contingency plans that some of the universities are having to look at, they might be able to change their plans, he said.

Fergus Hunter is an education and communications reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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Universities put major construction projects on ice amid coronavirus financial blow - The Sydney Morning Herald