E&OE

LAURA JAYES: This week we have seen Labor’s migration caps and how they wanted to limit the number of overseas university students coming to Australia. Well, that failed because the Greens and the Opposition have failed to support it, but the Opposition have a cap of its own in the works. I want to bring in now the CEO of Universities Australia, Luke Sheehy. Luke, thanks so much for your time

LUKE SHEEHY: Good to be with you.

LAURA JAYES: Has anyone been consulting with you over the last couple of days? Because it seems like they are in no man’s land at the moment

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, Laura, I said on Monday that this is continuing the war on our wonderful international education sector right through to an election year now. I foreshadowed that both sides of politics would try to up the ante with each other on how they could take the further sledgehammer to this sector, which is delivering for Australians. We want to make sure that we can get the certainty and stability we need, because every dollar of international student revenue we make, we put back into our world-class universities, to help support Australians get an education and deliver on research. And so, I am really worried that this is now creating a continued war on this sector, and we are becoming canon fodder in an election battle on migration.

LAURA JAYES: Yeah. What’s worse though, Luke? That you have this no man’s land at the moment where you can you continue to take international students at least for next year’s intake and the year after? Or are you kind of paralysed by that, in case something does pass and you have to reverse it?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, it’s really important to remember that just before Christmas last year, the previous Home Affairs minister Claire O’Neil, took a sledgehammer to this sector, which has, through her Ministerial Direction 107, has seen 60,000 fewer student visas granted in the first six months alone. And we calculate that as a $4.3 billion hit on the Australian economy, and that obviously means billions of dollars of impact on the Australian university sector. So, the caps were a fork in the road between a terrible approach to student visa processing and a not very good approach to a sector that supports the country. So, we have been in a pretty bad state all year. What we want now is the government and opposition to come together and ask themselves the question, do they want a world-class, higher education sector in this country to deliver for the country with international student revenues at the heart of it or not? And if they want us to have fewer international students, then they have got to pay universities through direct funding. We are suffering from a decade’s worth of structural underfunding as well.

LAURA JAYES: Sure.

LUKE SHEEHY: I want them to think about, do they want to build this sector, or do they want to wreck it?

LAURA JAYES: Sure, Luke, it’s not all about money. I mean, in large part it is, but it’s got to be about culture as well. It was pointed out that in some Sydney universities, 50 per cent are international students. Some courses are even more than that. So, it feels like there is a perception in the community that some of these universities are just money grabbing for international students. Do you agree that there at least needs to be some kind of recalibration in intake?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, certainly a conversation has been had with both sides of politics and the sector throughout the year, and we want a pretty rational conversation to continue. We don’t want to see it prosecuted with election sloganeering. But I am in Darwin today, and I have been here for the last couple of days, and I am seeing the beautiful infrastructure that Charles Darwin University invested in the city of Darwin here, and right across the territory. They were induced to build a $200 million facility based on the promise of additional funding that would flow from international students. So, while some of our big metropolitan universities are doing relatively well, there are really fantastic universities that are trying to serve their communities like Charles Darwin here to drive population growth, drive the source of skilled workers they need, and develop beautiful infrastructure for their communities. They can’t do it without the flow of international students. And so, while yes of course, some universities have done okay this year, many are in pain. 25 of our universities, out of 39, are in budget deficit, and were the year before that and will continue to be. So, there are precarious financial situations for our universities right across the country, and regional universities in particular serve their community so well. They drive a vibrant community life. And I want to see all universities get a fair deal on international students and funding. And what we are seeing at the moment, it’s not cutting it.

LAURA JAYES: Okay, Luke, only one sitting week left of the year after this. So let us know if you get any of those consultation phone calls. I won’t hold my breath and nor should you.

LUKE SHEEHY: Look, we can only hope that cooler heads prevail and that both sides want to see a vibrant higher education sector for Australia.

LAURA JAYES: Okay, we will see you soon, Luke. Appreciate you coming into the studio for us in Darwin.

LUKE SHEEHY: Good to see you, Laura

ENDS