There was no financial effect of COVID-19 on universities or TAFEs for the 2019 reporting year. However the universities and the 2 metropolitan TAFEs included an ‘event occurring after reporting date’ in the Notes to their 2019 financial statements in this regard. This recognised that it was too early, at the time of finalising their financial statements, to estimate the potential effect of COVID-19 on the entities.

At that time, in early March 2020, there was significant uncertainty regarding the anticipated effect of COVID-19 on overseas students commencing or re-commencing their studies in 2020, due to the international travel restrictions in place at that time. 

A state of emergency was declared in Western Australia on 15 March 2020 in response to the global public health situation, accompanied by unprecedented restrictions on individual movement, social gatherings and business operations. Entities across Australia, beyond the education sector, have been affected with significant socio-economic impacts evident at the time of presenting this report to Parliament.

We have not analysed the effect to date, however for the first semester 2020, universities and TAFEs took various actions, including:

• extensive use of online teaching and learning, where practicable
• academic calendars adjusted to enable variations to student assessment
• reducing financial burden on students through refund of parking fees, reduction in the student services and amenities fee, and enabling payments of fees through a hardship payments scheme
• student support grants to address financial hardship, rent and accommodation
• expanding VPN capacity to support remote working and learning by staff and students.

All entities need to be cognisant that good business governance and controls can be at risk during times of disruption, crisis and urgent response. There are some who will seek to take advantage of any sense of chaos for their own interests. We encourage entities to maintain good controls, particularly over cash, expenditure and assets throughout 2020. It is also essential to focus on the security of information systems, which may be the subject of increased cyber-attacks and phishing attempts. During and after this crisis, management needs to monitor financial activity even more closely than normal, and follow-up on potential concerns.