E&OE

JAMES GLENDAY: Let’s move on to one of the big stories of the last couple of weeks because universities are continuing to rail against the Federal Government and Opposition’s proposed migration and visa changes saying that international students are being treated as cannon fodder. In a speech yesterday, the chief executive of Universities Australia, Luke Sheehy, stated that the international education sector supports about a quarter of a million jobs, some of which could be put at risk. I’m happy to say he joins us now on the couch. Luke, good morning.

LUKE SHEEHY: Good to be with you.

JAMES GLENDAY: So, universities are a big part of our economy. It’s discussed a lot in terms of services. Is there any decrease at all in international student numbers that you’d actually be okay with?

LUKE SHEEHY: I think the fundamental thing that we are wanting to negotiate with both sides of politics in an election year is a strong, stable and growing sector for Australia.

JAMES GLENDAY: Growing … so, you are not happy with any decrease really?

LUKE SHEEHY: We’re in a negotiation now and both sides of politics have made it clear they want to change the net overall migration numbers. But our sector has an important part to play in Australia, not just to underpin what universities do for the country, but it also underpins economic growth. The National Australia Bank told us that half of last year’s economic growth came from international education and we’ve seen the latest figures on the current GDP rates. We want to make sure that Australia not only has a strong future for our universities, but a strong future for the economy and international education makes a really significant contribution to Australia’s economic growth.

LISA MILLAR: You say both sides of politics, but it’s also according to the opinion polls. The Australian public that are looking for a decrease – more restrictions – on that migration. So, you’ve kind of lost the argument on all sides.

LUKE SHEEHY: I’m putting the strong case for universities, both this week and I will in an election year to both sides of politics, because international education is a really important part of the way we fund our activities at universities. If we want a Future Made in Australia or we want to transition to net zero or we want to graduate all of the graduates we need for Australia’s jobs future, we need a strong education sector – we need a strong international education sector to support that. We’re going to negotiate strong and hard and make the case that not only are international students important for our universities, but they’re also important for the economy. When we make changes, we want to make sure that they make rational changes.

LISA MILLAR: Could there be an argument that there’s a danger – you’re sort of the boy who cried wolf? We’ve heard a lot from the universities over the last few years, and certainly during COVID, that the sky’s falling in. Is it actually falling in?

LUKE SHEEHY: The vast majority of our universities are running deficits and have for a number of years. We manage our universities in the public interest and we’re public universities predominantly. What we’re trying to do is not only support the work we do for research and teaching and learning but also ensure that we can continue to employ people. A fundamental change to our revenue sources from international student numbers is going to interrupt that. We need to make sure that we make the case for it.

JAMES GLENDAY: I want to be very clear about this – this is not sort of an anti-universities push. It’s that housing and migration are becoming very hot button kind of issues leading towards an election. I’ve always been curious though, why can’t universities, if they want to bring in more international students, simply build more housing on campus that is going to house these people so that there is no debate about how much extra pressure international students put on housing supply? I know it is a contested debate.

LUKE SHEEHY: I think there’s a couple of things to that. Firstly, international students account for only four per cent of the private rental market.

JAMES GLENDAY: Nationally, but it’s focused more around universities.

LUKE SHEEHY: Sure. But there’s only very few local government areas where international students contribute a significant amount – only around 10 per cent to the private rental market. What our message to both sides of politics is that yes, international students and domestic students need somewhere to live and that’s important, but the Reserve Bank has told us that the housing crisis is due to a lack of construction and supply. We want to do our part and it’s a team Australia effort. We want universities – as well as local, federal and state governments – to come together and work on this major housing supply shortage we have in Australia.

JAMES GLENDAY: Or construction graduates, maybe.

LISA MILLAR: Luke Sheehy, good to have you here. Thanks very much for coming in.

ENDS