More than 2,000 brand new student rooms are sitting empty in Melbourne’s CBD and there is no indication they will be used to quarantine international students.
The concept has been spearheaded by New South Wales but industry leaders say they are disappointed it is not being pursued in Victoria. Australia’s largest student accommodation provider Scape was supposed to open its brand-new Carlton facility in February.
The company offered its rooms to the Victorian government last year to help quarantine international students or even returning Australians but the idea did not receive traction. The Victorian government instead wants to quarantine international students in an approved COVID hotel and the acting premier has asked the Commonwealth’s approval to bring students back under a weekly economic cohort.