Students in Australia return to study abroad
Shana Imfeld was told to be prepared for bad news about her hopes of doing an exchange program in Australia.
With the COVID 19 travel restrictions which made it hard to reach Australia even for some of its own citizens last year, the 16-year-old from Switzerland was prepared for an experience closer to home in Europe.
Three weeks ago, Shana arrived in Rockhampton, central Queensland, as part of the first cohort of Rotary Youth Exchange students to return to Australia since the start of the epidemic.
Shana said she was excited about reaching her destination through the program, one of many to resume in recent weeks across the country.
It's totally amazing and it's weird because so many new things come towards me, Shana said.
I'm having a great time so far. Exchange programs across Australia were thrown into turmoil when COVID 19 created uncertainty about international travel.
Universities, farms, and high schools all run programs that send students overseas to experience different cultures and bring their international counterparts to Australia. All of these programs had to be suspended.
Heather Sugget, Rotary Youth Exchange Chairperson for District 9506, brought Shana and four other students to Queensland this year, said a lot of kids missed out because they can't go out when they've turned 18.
Some programs have recently resumed, but others are still in stasis.
WA schools have yet to allow exchange students to enter the country.
The WA Education Department hasn't accepted forms from exchange students to join its classrooms, meaning that Rotary students will not return to the state until July 2023.
Arrangements have begun to resume student exchange programs in Western Australia as soon as possible, in a safe way and based on current health advice, said Lisa Rodgers, WA Education Department director-general.
Even later, the outgoing exchanges will resume in July 2024.
Linda Bilney, WA's southern district chair for Rotary Youth Exchange, and vice-chair of the program nationally, said there were long delays in issuing passports and visas.
She said that there were delays when it came to the ones from overseas who are exchanging over the east.
Ms Bilney said the merging of the Rotary divisions in WA was a factor in the delay in that state.
She said that some students in the eastern states who were due to arrive in mid-July had to postpone the start of their exchange due to visa delays.
Exchange programs for university students have resumed in recent weeks.
Sneha Karri, a student in Korean studies and international relations at the University of Sydney, recently started an exchange program at Seoul National University in South Korea.
Her previous two applications to go on exchange fell through due to COVID 19 travel bans.
I was really doubting it at one point. Ms Karri is a New Colombo Plan scholarship from the Department of Foreign Affairs in South Korea.
Although she was able to fulfill her hopes of studying overseas, she said some of her peers who graduated during the Pandemic missed out.
The University of Sydney has created new global experiences virtually for students who were unable to travel in 2020 and 2021, according to the University of Sydney.
There were more than 2,800 students who participated in the programs before the university resumed its exchange program and sent 350 students overseas in June of this year.
There's a renewed interest in semester exchange with over 450 students studying overseas in Semester 2, 2022, and over 650 applications for Semester 1, 2023 exchange, a university spokeswoman said.
Curtin University in Perth is preparing to resume their programs this semester.
International Rural Exchange has also restarted exchange programs for agricultural placements.