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EditorÔÇÖs note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. To receive it, register here. For our coronavirus tracker and more coverage, see our hub

UNTIL RECENTLY advisers to ArgentinaÔÇÖs president, Alberto Fern├índez, quoted the old saw that crisis brings opportunity. Inaugurated in December, he is dealing with two calamities that no one can blame him for: a deep recession inherited from his predecessor, Mauricio Macri, and the covid-19 pandemic. Argentines give Mr Fern├índez high marks for his response. On becoming president he raised taxes and froze pensions and salaries to stabilise public finances. He acted early to slow the spread of covid-19, shutting borders, business and most transport by decree on March 12th. People who break the rules face fines and prison sentences.

The lockdown is having an effect. On April 23rd Argentina had 3,288 confirmed cases of covid-19 and 159 deaths from it. That is far fewer than in Spain, which has roughly the same number of people (though it may be an underestimate). Mr Fern├índezÔÇÖs approval rating has soared. A...

In the previous 24 hours before April 23, there were 10 new confirmed cases of covid-19 reported in the mainland of China. Six of them were from abroad, according to reports from CDC China, in which case the people have been put into medical treatment directly from the airport at local hospitals. Another four local cases were reported in Heilongjiang and Guangdong provinces. Among the 338 affected cities, now 318 are safe and sound, as all the patients have been cured and left hospitals.

During these days, I have received lots of messages from my colleagues around the world. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your care for me and my family: Thank you so much!

Will the coronavirus effect Chinese universities’ international recruitment?

My answer to this question is, “effects will be limited, and could hardly last if we present China objectively to students ÔÇô especially focusing on the encouraging results of counter-measures the Chinese government used to respond to this ongoing epidemic”.

Facing distorted or exaggerated remarks about China in the media, we would like to cite a saying: “The wise man knows he knows nothing, the fool thinks he knows all.”

When applicants ask us coronavirus-related questions, how should we reply? As most of my friends have asked this, I have decided to summarise my observations and to share it with you.

1. The Chinese central and local governments have been updating the confirmed cases of coronavirus and its related districts every 24 hours to the public. And they have been opening the medical treatment solution too.

2. The Chinese government has been providing ÔÇ£free treatment to all coronavirus patientsÔÇØ, Chinese and foreigners alike.*

3.┬á┬áChinese hospitals are well equipped and they know how to deal with the disease. Now all the countries will take into consideration the medical treatment advice from China and WHO, as Chinese hospitals have cured more than 78,000 patients as far. And Chinese Traditional Medicine,like ÔÇ£lianhuaqingwenÔÇØ, is proven to be 91% effective for Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms.

4. The Chinese Public Health Emergency System functions effectively during this epidemic. With reports from confirmed patients, it can track almost all the people who might be at risk of being infected, and implement proper quarantine medical observation.

5. The Chinese Ministry of Education has set up a covid-19 Emergency Management Plan on campus.

6. A Chinese coronavirus vaccine is in the clinical test (Phase II) stages.

During the fight against coronavirus, new fields of studies like 5G, AI, Big Data, and UAV have sufficiently helped Chinese medical teams to work beyond the distance and to save lives together. Chinese universities will surely increase their investment in the further development of these fields and programs.

“The tuition fees in China are relatively low compared with European or American institutions”

Chinese universities keep taking international recruitment and international education as a channel for global communication rather than a business.

For this reason, the tuition fees in China are relatively low compared with European or American institutions. And our talented professors and well-equipped schools have the confidence to prepare our students for the future!

Covid-19 indeed creates uncertainty as most countries have closed their borders. For September/October, the autumn entry, we think the border in China will be open.

Welcome to China!

*As China is going to be regarded as a low-risk zone of coronavirus, recently people around the world have been surging into China. On March 14, it was reported that the ÔÇ£ free medical treatment policy for foreigners in ChinaÔÇØ has been updated to ÔÇ£ free medical treatment for foreigners registered in the Chinese Social Security SystemÔÇØ.

All international students in China and foreigners legally working in China are registered in the Chinese Social Security System with their own Social Security Card.

Professor Ying Qi is the director of international admissions at Yinchuan University, China. He is also the senior program advisor of CFP Talent, a French think tank focusing on French-Asian intercultural exchange. His fields of research are international business development and international talent movement.

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StudyPerth has announced that a StudyPerth Crisis Relief program has been established to address the acute needs of international students affected by the  Covid-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions.

The SPCR program is to be funded by diverting StudyPerth resources from curtailed or cancelled projects and will be accessible via application to provide support services to international students with regard to food, shelter, health and wellbeing, and rights and support.

“It is also important to demonstrate to education agents…and to studentsÔÇÖ families that we are a compassionate community”

StudyPerth said the first stage is to refer students to their educational institution, as for the majority of cases, the institution will be able to provide the necessary support for their students.

“The principal aim of SPCR is to provide practical help to students in acute need, but it is also important to demonstrate to education agents here and overseas and to studentsÔÇÖ families that we are a compassionate community and we’re supporting their students when they need us most,” a statement from StudyPerth explained.

“This will be to WA’s advantage as we recover and rebound from the COVID-19 crisis. Recovery of the sector will be crucial to stabilising the StateÔÇÖs economy now that international education has been identified as a key component of a diversified economy.”

StudyPerth said it is working very closely with education providers, consulates, ethnic associations and business councils to establish a protocol that matches international students with the support, aid or advice they need.

“If we value and support our international students when they are most in need, we can ensure that the international education sector in WA remains strong and can drive prosperity and jobs growth, as restrictions are lifted and the global economy begins to recover.”

International education is AustraliaÔÇÖs third-largest export and Western AustraliaÔÇÖs fourth, generating more than $1.9 billion annually in export income for WA.

This week, sector stakeholders have also welcomed the South Australian governmentÔÇÖs AU$13.8 million funding plan to assist the stateÔÇÖs international students and a $20m ÔÇÿJobs for CanberransÔÇÖ plan in the Australian Capital Territory.

The post Australia: StudyPerth Crisis Relief established appeared first on The PIE News.

Three language schools in New Zealand have been approved to offer Accredited Pathway Assessments as evidence for language proficiency for tertiary education, thanks to an agreement between education bodies English New Zealand and Universities New Zealand.

The first schools to be approved are Bridge International College,┬áLanguages International and┬áKaplan International Languages ÔÇô all with┬ácentres in the country’s largest city Auckland.

“This is a positive step forward not only for the approved members, but also in terms of cross-sector collaboration”

As part of an MoU signed in June 2019, English New Zealand and Universities New Zealand┬áannounced that the┬áAccredited Pathway Assessment would be accepted as evidence of meeting English language proficiency requirements for the country’s eight universities.

“This is a positive step forward not only for the approved members, but also in terms of cross-sector collaboration,” English New Zealand┬áexecutive director Kim Renner said.

“With inevitable changes coming for the export education industry, seamless pathways into further study and closer collaboration will become more important than ever before,” Renner said.

The initiative will enable more English language students to consider tertiary study pathways and longer-term study in New Zealand, the organisation, which represents 22 of the country’s private and state-owned English language schools, said.

Approved members will use the English New Zealand Accredited Pathway Assessment logo, English New Zealand said.

Applications were reviewed by qualified English language experts to ensure quality and consistency.

The thorough reviewing process would enable universities to have confidence around due diligence, Renner added.

The post NZ: new language proficiency initiative appeared first on The PIE News.

College students who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children aren’t eligible for emergency aid Congress set aside in its stimulus package to help students who have experienced disruptions due to the closure of campuses during the coronavirus epidemic, the Education Department said Tuesday.

The announcement came as the department released more details about how higher education funds in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act stimulus package, approved by Congress last month, can be used.

Beyond excluding so-called DACA students, the department’s attempt to bring more clarity muddled the question of which students can get emergency help, making it even more difficult for colleges to get money in the hands of those who need it, said Terry Hartle, the American Council on Education’s senior vice president for government and public affairs.

The CARES Act had split roughly $12 billion in higher education funding, with half going to colleges and universities to help defray the financial impact of the pandemic on institutions.

The other half will go to students through emergency grants to help them pay for a variety of needs, ranging from buying tickets home after their campuses were closed to getting needed computers as courses have moved online.

In making $6.2 billion available to institutions for the emergency grants two weeks ago, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had said she largely would leave it up to institutions to decide who’d get help.

But after colleges said they were confused about how the money could be used, the department released a question-and-answer sheet to try to add clarity. In the letter the department said the grants could only go to students who are eligible for federal aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act. That excludes those brought to the U.S. illegally as children, who were given the right to live and work in the country lawfully under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Angela Morabito, a department spokeswoman, said in an email that it was Congress’s decision to exclude DACA students. “The CARES Act makes clear that this taxpayer-funded relief fund should be targeted to U.S. citizens, which is consistently echoed throughout the law,” she said.

However, others like David Bergeron, former acting assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the department and a current senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said the stimulus bill left the department flexibility to cover DACA students if it wanted.

Hartle agreed. "The Department of Education owns this decision. Period," he said.

Sanaa Abrar, advocacy director for United We Dream Network, which advocates for people in the DACA program, blasted the decision. "Immigrants play an essential role in our society, and now they serve as front-line workers responding to COVID-19," she said. "Yet immigrants have been largely left out of COVID-19 relief efforts."

Meanwhile, the Q&A adds confusion for campus leaders in trying to decide who can get the grants, said Daniel Madzelan, ACE's associate vice president for government and public affairs.

The section of the higher education law cited by the department’s guidance includes a host of considerations for institutions to explore before giving out the grants -- including whether students are making sufficient academic progress and whether they have ever had a drug arrest.

That’s a problem for “campuses who want to get the money out quickly but not get into trouble with the Department of Education,” Hartle said. “It was pretty clear the intent [of the CARES Act] was to get aid to all students, but this seems to narrow that more than is desirable.”

The exclusion of DACA students was disappointing to other associations representing colleges and universities, including the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the American Association of Community Colleges.

“As a sector, community colleges are committed to serving each and every individual who aspires to benefit from their programs,” said David Baime, AACC's senior vice president for government relations and policy analysis.

The Q&A also said, as the institutions expected, that emergency grants could not be used for a number of purposes, including paying unpaid tuition owed by students.

In some respects the department provided more clarity for institutions. DeVos also announced that she’s making available the other half of the stimulus, another $6.2 billion institutions can use to defray their own costs. And she released an agreement institutions have to sign to get the money, describing where they’re allowed to spend those funds.

One key for institutions is that they will be able to dip into the money to reimburse themselves for what they’ve already spent to give refunds to students for room and board, and other services, like internet access, that were no longer available when campuses closed. Hartle said that would help deal with institutions’ immediate need for money.

The rules also include prohibitions on using the money for certain purposes, including marketing, recruiting students, increasing endowments and building sports facilities.

DeVos, in the instructions released Tuesday, urged colleges to use as much as much of the funds earmarked for institutions as possible for emergency grant aid for students -- especially for colleges that have “significant endowment or other resources,” according to the guidance.

"This pandemic has made clear every single education institution should make important investments to ensure learning continues when unexpected circumstances arise," DeVos said in a statement. "Accordingly, the additional funds made available today can be used to expand remote learning programs, build IT capacity and train faculty and staff to operate in a remote learning environment so that at any moment institutions can pivot quickly."

Under the stimulus package, money from both funds is apportioned to colleges and universities based on a formula weighted toward institutions with the most low-income Pell Grant recipients.

Institutions have been anxious to get the money. Indeed, just a week after the stimulus package was signed into law, associations representing higher ed institutions wrote DeVos to clamor for the money to be distributed quickly.

“I fear this funding will be for naught for many institutions unless the department can act very quickly to make these funds available,” Ted Mitchell, ACE's president, wrote on behalf of the associations.

The coronavirus outbreak has torpedoed the budgets of public and private colleges alike.

Revenue shortfalls, student fee refunds, possible declines in fall enrollment and unexpected cost increases have set the stage for a difficult financial future. Public college systems are facing all of that and another threat: impending cuts to state higher education funding.

It all means renewed debate over the controversial idea of closing public college campuses.

The Vermont State Colleges System, projecting a near-term operating deficit of up to $10 million this fiscal year, announced plans last week for a “substantial transformation” of its colleges that included closing several campuses. Days later, the board deferred a vote on the plan amid public backlash.

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education forecasts a $52 million loss, even after federal stimulus money is applied. The University of Alaska system projects a $35 to $40 million loss. The University of Maine system is looking at a $20 million short-term loss. Many states have announced, or will announce, budget cuts as a result of the coronavirus, and higher education funding is expected to take a big hit.

New Jersey has frozen higher education dollars. New York is expected to cut higher ed funding despite a proposal earlier this year by Governor Andrew Cuomo to boost state support. California hopes to make good on a $217.7 million increase proposed by Governor Gavin Newsom, but he recently called the January budget “no longer operable.”

Despite the hardship, public college systems are rejecting closure proposals and remain focused on collaboration, experts say.

The Pennsylvania state system struggled financially for years and has yet to reverse declining enrollments across the system. Dennis Jones, president emeritus of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, remembered proposals by the state Legislature years ago to close “a campus or two or three.”

“There are lawmakers in Pennsylvania that would love to close a campus or two just because they think that’s a way to save money,” he said.

Daniel Greenstein, system chancellor, is adamant about keeping all system campuses open.

“Politically it doesn’t make sense, and from a public policy standpoint it doesn’t make sense,” he said about closures.

Small campuses with fast-declining enrollments and that serve low-income students are most often threatened with closure, Greenstein said. In Pennsylvania, it’s the colleges in the rural parts of the state.

But closing those campuses does damage twofold, Greenstein continued. Any region with a closing campus would lose its largest employer and access to education for local students who need it.

“It is difficult for rural communities to source the rural and business leaders they need,” Greenstein said. “So they use universities as a way of training their teachers and their nurses and their Main Street businesspeople.”

But for a public college system hemorrhaging money, the quickest way to stop the bleeding is to lop off a campus, right?

“No,” Jones said. “Not in the short run, anyway.”

Many colleges have bond debt, meaning they still owe money to investors for buildings, residence halls and other projects.

Closing a campus means losing the opportunity to generate revenue to pay off that debt, Greenstein said.

“That just gets absorbed by the other universities in the system,” he said.

That said, Greenstein emphasized that just because a college remains open doesn’t mean it will continue with business as usual.

“When you say you’re not going to close an institution, that doesn’t mean it’s just going to continue as is,” Greenstein said. “It can’t. It’s bleeding cash.”

He suggested keeping successful programs where they are and moving less popular programs online, to be taught virtually by another system campus that executes them well. Systems can also consolidate services that are required across the board, like payroll, to save money.

The initiatives Greenstein mentioned relate to the idea of “systemness,” a term that Jason Lane and Rebecca Martin use often to describe public college systems working as one unit rather than as a conglomerate of independent colleges. Lane is the director of the Systems Center and dean of the School of Education at the State University of New York at Albany. Martin leads the National Association of System Heads.

“We’re seeing presidents of campuses, in many cases, talking weekly if not daily with system administration. Provosts are meeting with each other to talk about coordinated academic policies and programs,” Lane said. “There is no doubt there’s been an unprecedented level of coordination and systemness that has come out of this.”

But not all campuses are following such a model.

“Vermont treated this as a campus-by-campus problem,” Jones said, “instead of saying, ‘We need to provide access to education … how are we as a system going to do that?’”

The Vermont State College System's plan to overhaul its colleges includes closing Vermont Technical College's Randolph Center campus and Northern Vermont University and laying off 500 employees. After community pushback, the system Board of Trustees chair, J. Churchill Hindes, announced Sunday that a vote on the plan would be deferred by at least a week.

“I have listened to my colleagues on the board and want to give them time to consider the very significant decisions we have to make,” Hindes said in a press release. “But … delayed action increases the profound financial risks facing all four VSCS colleges and universities. Those risks grow daily. We simply do not have the funds to afford a protracted discussion and debate.”

The Vermont State Colleges System did not respond to a request for comment.

As to whether there will be more closure proposals like Vermont’s, Jones, of NCHEMS, said yes.

“The systems that have their act together won’t close them. They may repurpose them,” Jones said. “Those systems that are less able to behave as a system may in fact close some, because I think that we’re going to be in for at least a year or two of pretty tough economic times for higher education.”

Students at Georgia’s public colleges and universities are petitioning for a pass-fail grading policy at their institutions this semester, arguing it is a matter of equity given the starkly different living and working situations students find themselves in following the suspension of in-person classes due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many colleges have moved to mandatory or optional pass-fail policies for the spring semester, but the University System of Georgia has resisted appeals for a pass-fail option, saying it trusts faculty to grade students effectively and that maintaining high academic standards matters.

“We have so many students who are struggling right now,” said Ciera Thomas, a sophomore at the University of Georgia and an organizer of USG Students 4 Grade Reform, a coalition representing students across the University System of Georgia’s 26 institutions, which collectively enroll more than 300,000 students. Thomas said coalition organizers have collected more than 2,000 testimonies of students describing the difficulties they're facing doing classwork remotely. The organizers say they've heard concerns, for example, from students living in rural areas with poor internet connectivity -- an estimated 1.6 million Georgia residents lack fast internet connections -- and from international students who are waking up in the middle of the night to view lectures remotely.

"We have heard from thousands of students and faculty who have been completing their schoolwork in fast food restaurant parking lots, waking up at 3:30 a.m. to attend lectures or returning to households affected by destabilizing forces like domestic violence or adverse mental health. We have heard from students who have been forced to break the state’s shelter-in-place order to complete their assignments due to a lack of internet access," Thomas said.

The move by many colleges to pass-fail options has helped assuage student anxiety in the mass transition to online learning. But it has also raised many still-unanswered questions about the implications for grade point average calculations for scholarships, graduate school applications and transferability of credits.

A spokesman for the University System of Georgia said Tuesday there has been no change in the system’s policy of maintaining letter grading, which was outlined in a March 30 statement. “We are confident our students will rise to the challenge, and the USG will do everything in its power to help them do so. We trust our faculty to teach and grade students effectively,” that statement said.

“In times of adversity, we should reach higher, not lower. Maintaining high academic standards is critical to the success of USG students now and in the future. Continuing letter grading for the final few weeks of the semester will allow faculty to assess the performance of students in the same manner as they always have,” the statement said.

Thomas said the system’s position is unfair.

“There are students who are struggling with so many things right now. They are rising to those challenges; they are reaching higher,” Thomas said. “For some of us that’s getting by day to day, whether that’s taking care of relatives or surviving in the midst of a global pandemic, we are rising, and we are trying, but we don’t think it’s fair to hold everyone to the same standards as they were held to before when this situation is wildly different than anything we’ve ever seen before.”

Thomas said USG Students 4 Grade Reform plans to submit a petition to the Board of Regents before the end of the month calling for a pass-fail grading option. Their action follows on other student petitions and actions by student governments at public colleges across the state. Student government presidents from 17 Georgia institutions sent a letter to the Georgia Board of Regents requesting a pass-fail option but were told there would be no change, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Law students at the University of Georgia and Georgia State University have petitioned for a mandatory pass-fail grading policy. Law.com, a trade publication for the legal profession, reported March 31 that at least 75 law schools nationally have moved to mandatory pass-fail grades for the semester, making Georgia State and UGA among a few outliers. ÔÇï

The petition from the Georgia law students argues that the "combination of catastrophe with the competitive structure of law school poses a severe risk of inequity." The petition argues that the use of letter grading allows some students to gain an advantage in class rank over other classmates who "disproportionately bear the impact of COVID-19" due to reasons such as "poor internet access, job loss, disruptive caregiving responsibilities, and the lack of a home environment conducive to uninterrupted study."

“In law school class rank actually matters, and it matters for your future employment prospects,” said Ross Harris, a third-year law student at the University of Georgia. Harris said COVID-19 has caused him to take on unexpected childcare duties for his 8-month-old child, whose daycare is closed.

Harris credits UGA's law school for adjusting the grading curve upward so the median grade the curve is built around is now higher. But he said a letter grading system, even on an adjusted curve, still compels students to compete against one another. In a normal context, competing with other law students for grades and class rank is fine, he said. But right now, "we're not on equal footing, and our grades are not going to be any reflection of merit whatsoever.”

"For someone to rise or fall in class rank during this semester is unacceptable," Harris said. "This is just not the time we should be using academic performance to determine someone’s job prospects."

ÔÇïA spokeswoman for the law school at Georgia State declined to comment, referring a reporter to the state university system's March 30 statement.

Greg Trevor, a spokesman for the University of Georgia, said the university supports the system's decision to maintain the current grading system for all classes. Trevor also noted the decision by law school faculty to adjust the grading curve upward for this term.

"We trust our faculty to assess the performance of their students, as they always have, on work performed before and after our temporary closure," Trevor said.

"The university and the School of Law are focused on the continuity of instruction and completing the current semester," he said, adding that the school has dedicated $500,000 to support employment initiatives and assist with preparation for bar exams. "Together, we are committed to law student success and to assisting them during this unprecedented time."

Well, yesterday was a slow news day, wasn't it?

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that, if a second wave of COVID-19 hits next winter, the situation will be even worse. President Trump is suspending immigration, which, he says, will help the economy recover. Home sales are beginning to drop.

All we can really do is hunker down and find ways we can help.

One way is by donating to good causes. For example, this animal sanctuary in Colorado. In exchange, you get to have one of their animals make a guest appearance on a videoconference of your choice.

To help you smile a little before the rest of the (mostly bad) news, here are a few more palate cleansers.

A new website will only survive if you post on it. If no one posts to this site for 24 hours, it will self-destruct. Is it a metaphor for something? A commentary on the human psyche? Who knows.

The Newshouse, a student publication out of Syracuse University, has created Fermata, a publication looking specifically at arts and culture during coronavirus. It's an interesting look at how the industry, which really relies on people coming together, is adapting.

To the news!

California State University at Fullerton is one of the first institutions to officially announce its fall semester will, most likely, be online.

The Education Department has made the $6.2 billion earmarked by Congress available to help institutions' operations. It's also released the requirements for the funds.

As Congress discusses possible additional stimulus packages, Democratic senators are saying for-profit institutions shouldn't get any more funding.

Higher ed groups are asking Congress to ensure that college students won't have to pay taxes on aid they receive through the CARES Act.

More closures are coming. Franklin University, an institution in Ohio, is closing down its Urbana branch campus this year.

Some institutions are taking an entirely different approach. Franciscan University, also in Ohio, is promising to cover tuition costs for incoming full-time freshmen. The aid will be applied after grants and scholarships and will cover the fall 2020 semester.

Davidson College presents a third way forward. Its students in the fall will have the option to defer tuition payments until August 2021.

Here’s a quick roundup of our latest stories, in case you’ve fallen a bit behind (we don’t blame you):

Several organizations representing colleges and universities are telling Congress to address immediate needs of student loan borrowers first -- like suspending payments -- before considering debt cancellation, Kery Murakami reports.

COVID-19 might be hurting women's research productivity, as they take the brunt of domestic and emotional labor, Colleen Flaherty writes.

I wrote about the denial of state waiver requests for the federal food assistance program, which is notoriously difficult for students to navigate.

News From Elsewhere

There's talk, and plans, in some states to resume normal life sooner rather than later. But we may be far from the end of this, as shown in Singapore, where coronavirus cases have doubled in the past few days even after the country seemingly did everything right, The New York Times reports.

Education Dive has a story on the best way institutions can get funding to students. The big takeaway: no red tape.

An unanticipated side effect of the pandemic seems to be trouble concentrating -- particularly on reading, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

Percolating Thoughts

This is a time when everyone has an opinion. As journalists, we try not to have opinions, but we've gathered some interesting ones from others.

Screenagers has an article on "digital bingeing" and what it can do to people.

The president emerita of Vassar College implores colleges to use what's happening as an opportunity to raise college attainment rates.

The Century Foundation took a look at the global impacts of the coronavirus on higher education.

Have any percolating thoughts or notice any from others? Feel free to send them our way or comment below.

We’ll continue bringing you the news you need in this crazy time. Keep sending us your questions and story ideas. We’ll get through this together.