E&OE

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Well, reaction is coming in thick and fast this morning to the government’s plan to cap overseas university enrolments. Foreign students say they now feel much less welcome in the country after the Federal Education Minister Jason Clare proposed a limit of 270,000 new enrolments from overseas for next year. That’s a drop of more than 50,000, taking the $48 billion industry back to pre-pandemic levels.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: The Group of Eight, which represents some of the country’s top universities, has labelled the plan ill-conceived and is warning the Senate not to be bullied into accepting the legislation. For more we’re joined by David Lloyd, Chair of Universities Australia. Welcome to the program, David.

DAVID LLOYD: Morning, Bridget.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: What’s your reaction to this plan from the federal government?

DAVID LLOYD: I think the students have said it themselves. I think if we have international students saying they’re not feeling welcome in Australia, we run the risk of undermining what is the second largest export industry in the country and damaging the economy.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: The government says this will take us back to pre-pandemic levels. Is that accurate?

DAVID LLOYD: Certainly, that’s the language that’s being used, but pre-pandemic levels are levels that were in existence five years ago. So, we’re taking, again, a very successful industry backwards in time.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: What do you think this will do to Australia’s reputation as a high-quality place to come to for international students from all over the world?

DAVID LLOYD: I think the high-quality component and the welcoming component of the institutions and the environments in which they find themselves will be unchanged. The issue here is whether students will even consider Australia going forward when there are other countries that are not increasing their visa fees that are not putting in place these obstacles to enrolment, that are not saying to students that you’re actually just viewed as something which is economic rather than something which contributes to society.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Did you have discussions with the Minister Jason Clare and the federal government about this? Were you blindsided or were you able to put your views forward in discussions with the government?

DAVID LLOYD: This has been ongoing for quite a while, Bridget. One of the major issues we’ve had since the beginning of the year was a direction which came from the Foreign Affairs and certainly Home Affairs ministries, wherein Clare O’Neil put in place a direction which actually prevented the processing of visas. That’s been ongoing since the start of the year, which reduced the numbers of students by nearly 60,000 to date. That’s over $4 billion taken out of the industry.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: So, what do you think is behind this? Is it politics? Is it concern about impact on housing and rental properties? Why do you think the federal government has taken this move?

DAVID LLOYD: There’s been a lot of talk about the impact on properties. The Property Council and all of the research that we’ve seen to date has said that there’s not a housing crisis caused by students. Certainly, I know here in South Australia there’s plenty of student vacancies. What is at play here is a political play around migration and being seen to be tough on migration and regrettably, the students who are being caught in the middle are not the cause of. We know that 86 per cent of the students who come to learn in Australia go back to their home countries richer for the experience and our country better off as well.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: I guess it’s a nuanced experience though for students who are already here. We just spoke to Aman Singh, a nursing student here in Melbourne, who said at the moment with the numbers as they are, some international students are really struggling to get placements, they’re struggling to get rental accommodation. Does more reform need to be done to ensure that the students who are here can complete their studies and get somewhere to live?

DAVID LLOYD: Every university is working really hard to improve student experience. The housing crisis is, as I said, not one that’s been caused by students. It’s something that everyone finds themselves in a similar vein as they try to compete for what’s available. But certainly, from a student experience perspective, I think that what’s been pushed out now is just going to diminish the perception of students in society and that runs a risk for how welcome they’ll feel.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: What about for some of the smaller and regional universities? There seems to be a bit of a diversity in views on this plan from the federal government. Are some smaller universities welcoming this?

DAVID LLOYD: I think what you’re seeing is, as I referred to earlier on, there was a direction in place which actually stopped the processing of visas for a lot of institutions and many of the regional institutions were in that boat. So, they were in a mode for most of 2024 where they weren’t even able to secure student visas or enrol numbers. Now, what’s been proposed would release that chokehold on the visa processing and so allow them to re-enrol. But certainly, the numbers that they’ll see will not be anywhere near the numbers that we would’ve expected to have seen in a situation where the visa processing itself was just left as it was before 2024.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: David Lloyd from Universities Australia, thanks for your time this morning.

ENDS