NEWS

Congratulations to Expert Education and Visa Services (EEVS) on achieving NEAS Quality Endorsement! EEVS is an Australian-registered Education and Migration consultant agency. EEVS began recruiting international students in 2003 and now has over 35 offices in 13 countries and regions, covering Australia, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nigeria and South Africa. EESV has become the 5th education agent to participate in the new NEAS Endorsed Education Agent initiative, joining a discrete group of high-quality agents committed to continuous improvement and independent quality assurance.

Endorsed agents are listed on NEAS social media, including as its website and LinkedIn profile. Agents also enjoy the benefits of using the NEAS Endorsed Agency logo on their website and marketing collateral. Please email NEAS to find out more.

An ICEF article of 21 January outlined important observations for the first quarter of 2021.

Secretary of the Department of Health, Brendan Murphy, recently expressed his expectation for current restrictions on international arrivals to remain in place for “most of 2021”.

The weekly cap on international arrivals has been reduced from 7,500 to less than 5,000 per week, and will prioritise returning Australians over foreign nationals, including visiting students.

To date, only one pilot programme to bring in international students (to the Northern Territory) has proceeded. All other pilots (for South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria) have been suspended.

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) observed that returning or continuing international students enrolled in Australia as of 15 October 2020 declined by about 13% year-over-year, to about 502,000. From this foundation, DESE estimated at least 381,546 enrolments on 1 January 2021.

Please note: Our office will be closed 21 December 2020 – 1 January 2021 (inclusive).

• Schools – Tung Linh Ha (Vietnam, Beverly Hills Girls High School)
• English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) – Shuang Zhang (China, University of Newcastle)
• Vocational Education and Training (VET) – Elise Hyoin Lee (South Korea, TAFE NSW Ultimo)
• Higher Education – Jami Emerson (United States, Australian Catholic University)

These individuals have made outstanding and selfless contributions to the local community and have shown leadership and courage, overcoming a range of challenges in 2020.

NEAS also congratulates the two winners of the NSW International Student Community Engagement Awards;

• Business and Community – The University of Wollongong and community partners’ ‘Food+ with Care Project’
• Education Providers –  The Macquarie Student Success Support Package initiative

Congratulations to ACET Vietnam on successful completion of their 2020 Quality Review! ACET has been a member of NEAS since 2011. Managed by IDP Education, ACET delivers the UTS Insearch Academic English program along with additional courses across four centres in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. A common theme emerging from the surveys and focus groups was a recognition and appreciation of a highly professional and supportive academic team.

ACET’s 1-1 lessons have been a huge hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, and students appear to be very well cared for and supported at the Centre. One student commented “I love ACET to the moon and back. It is my dream centre to study.”

Join Robert Chasse and Joanna Storti from Sonder, to discuss an innovative approach to delivering and scaling student support through COVID, and in a heightened remote learning environment.  The webinar will focus on providing NEAS members with an overview of how Sonder can support institutions with international student re-entry, quarantine support, mental health support, and managing risk through this highly disruptive time for the ELICOS sector.

Throughout the webinar, NEAS members will be invited to share feedback on the current challenges they face in providing consistent, high quality, and multilingual student support.  As a sector, how will we position ourselves competitively in the current fragile international student market? How will we assure and demonstrate the quality of our support programs both on and offshore? and how will ensure a consistent framework for personalised mental health support? These are some of the big questions we’ll aim to unpack in this session.

Speaker Bios

Joanna Storti is the Head of Education at Sonder and leads the education team across partner development and partner success. Joanna is a senior international education specialist with 20 years of experience across tertiary student recruitment, business development, marketing, partnerships, student mobility, and program development.

Robert Chasse is the Education Partnerships Manager at Sonder, where he is responsible for ensuring the successful integration of the Sonder service for new partners and enhancing the quality of support and reporting for existing partners. With 15 years of experience in the international education sector, Robert effectively navigates environments typified by change and complex issues to deliver results and innovate how organisations achieve their strategic priorities.

Register here