TOPICS: Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024, international education, international student caps, migration, housing

E&OE

LUKE SHEEHY: I am Luke Sheehy, the Chief Executive Officer of Universities Australia. I’ve just come out of a Senate hearing that’s looking at the issue of international students and the government’s request to cap international student numbers from next year onwards. This is a $50 billion sector that serves Australia really well. Last year, half of our economic growth came from this sector. It supports tourism, it supports jobs, and importantly, it helps Australians get a world-class education through the fact that international student revenue supports Australians to get the skills they need in an increasingly diverse and competitive global economy. We are here to make the case that our sector needs certainty, stability and growth to succeed and continue to deliver for Australia.

Since December last year, we’ve had a determination from the Home Affairs Minister, Ministerial Determination 107, that has slowed down visa processing and has caused an enormous sense of chaos and uncertainty in our sector and for many of our universities, particularly those in the regions and the outer suburban growth corridors of Australia have been unable to fill international student places. We don’t want caps as they’re written in and we don’t want ministerial interventions as we’ve seen in this Bill, but we don’t want the current state. We want to negotiate a fair dinkum deal for this critically important sector that delivers for Australia and delivers for Australians.

JOURNALIST: Isn’t there the risk that obviously Universities Australia, a lot of other organisations, were up in the Senate hearing today expressing disapproval with all of this. Is there the fear that you think that this is seen as just universities just wanting uncapped numbers of students purely for their own profits, that if a cap on international students that would severely limit the number, the amount of money that universities should be able to get? Would it just be seen as something cynical along those lines?

LUKE SHEEHY: Australia’s international education sector is a world-class asset and a great Australian success story. Our universities are not-for-profit. Every dollar that we get, we invest in our capability, we invest in our research and development, and importantly, we invest in delivering world-class teaching that benefits Australians. We need to see more and more Australians get a university degree in this country. Nine out of 10 future jobs in the Australian economy will require a university or a vocational level qualification. International students support that by providing a central revenue. Over the last 10 years, we have seen a decline of billions of dollars in Australia’s higher education funding available to teach Australian students. International student revenue is not-profit. It supports Australia and Australians. It also helps turbocharge our research effort so we can discover new cures, discover new ideas and things that will support the new economy. Research, development, teaching and learning are not-for-profit making exercises in Australia.

JOURNALIST: You said you want a fair dinkum deal … what does that actually look like and how have your discussions been? Not in the inquiry, but with Government and with Ministers.

LUKE SHEEHY: We absolutely want a fair dinkum deal that underpins certainty, stability and growth for our sector. What we are doing is talking to the Minister for Education and the Minister for Skills and talking to all the ministers related to this portfolio to make sure that they understand the importance of this sector in underpinning what we do, but also underpinning economic growth. What this Bill is proposing is that a Minister can come along and tell universities how many international students they can have overall, but also where and how and what they can teach. This is an intervention we have never seen in our sector before from Ministers and we think it’s overreach. What we want to see is a deal that ensures our universities can continue to grow and continue to support Australia’s overall efforts.

JOURNALIST: Is there any cap you would support?

LUKE SHEEHY: We are in a negotiation at the moment, and we understand that the Government is considering what they will give us for next year or the years beyond. But, it’s really important that we get a fair dinkum deal as soon as possible so we can deliver that certainty for our sector and continue to deliver for the nation.

JOURNALIST: But you can’t put a number on it?

LUKE SHEEHY: What we want to see is many universities who have the capacity to grow and have the opportunity to continue to grow to deliver for their local communities. We support the objectives of the Government’s migration reforms. What we don’t want to see is irrational settings and a sledgehammer taken to this critically important sector. We have already seen 60,000 fewer international student visas issued in this country in the last 12 months. That’s a $4.3 billion hit to our sector already and could undermine nearly 14,000 jobs.

JOURNALIST: Will Universities Australia call for a carve out of the Bill in that there are certain elements of it that is cracking down on some tertiary providers or some skill providers that are only doing it just so international students can get work visas, for instance. Do you support that particular crackdown or that sort of thing?

LUKE SHEEHY: Look, the Government already has a number of powers at its disposal to intervene in the sector in international education visa rorts already. We’re not seeing many rorts at all in universities. In fact, we’re high-quality providers and what we want to see is that universities and TAFEs are treated fairly in this process and that the Government has the right powers, but also acts on the powers that it has and seeks to crackdown on shonky providers.

ENDS