E&OE

ALICE MATTHEWS: Good afternoon to you, Luke.

LUKE SHEEHY: Good afternoon.

ALICE MATTHEWS: Thank you so much for being here. Let’s start with the role that international students play in our current university sector.

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, Australia’s international students and our international education system is really a great Australian success story, and it contributes over $50 billion to the Australian economy. Closer to home in Canberra that means around $1.56 billion each and every year into the ACT economy. 140 countries are where our students come from and they choose Australia for a quality education. And it’s really welcome. We have seen the growth coming back in this system and the allocation of numbers right across Australia. It’s a really big endorsement of the world-class education you’re seeing at the University of Canberra and the ANU right here in Canberra. A 13 per cent growth overall for the ACT, the equal highest growth we’re seeing across the country, just equal with Victoria. So, it’s really welcome news. International students and international education, as Bill Shorten said, provide a bridge to the outside world. It creates friendships for Australia, it creates long-term links and it’s really important to help fund our universities, not only for those students from 140 countries, but for students from Australia who want to get the skills, who want to get the education they need to build their futures. So, I’m really, really positive about these numbers, particularly for these great universities here in Canberra.

ALICE MATTHEWS: Yes, you’ve got a very sunny outlook, which is lovely. Would you say that universities have been perhaps too reliant on the funding that international students bring in?

LUKE SHEEHY: Look, universities are operating within the parameters that the government gives us. And for decades, federal government after federal government Labor and Coalition have told us to go and find international students and educate them in Australia. It’s a really important way to build those relationships. As I’ve said that it also helps us fund our universities. We are not-for-profit organisations. The money that we raise from international student fees goes into driving the research powerhouses of our universities. And importantly, Alice, it helps fund Australia’s education system.

ALICE MATTHEWS: So, what kind of challenges has it presented when there’s been less international students coming to Australia just in the past year or so?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, our universities have been doing it tough and there’s obviously a lot of conversation around job losses that we’ve seen, budgets in deficit and I’ve made the case throughout the last two years that Australian universities need to be supported through international students. And of course, making sure that we’ve got proper sustainable federal funding so we can deliver on the outcomes the country wants us to deliver on. We can’t have a future made in Australia or an economic or an energy transformation or have enough nurses and teachers and doctors and engineers in our Australian workforce if we don’t fund our universities properly. So, I’m glad that that big debate that we saw during the election year is over and that the government has come back and said we want to see growth. We want to see growth in international students. We want to see growth in domestic students. It’s about setting Australia up for the future and universities are the essential ingredient in building that future.

ALICE MATTHEWS: What’s stopping international students from coming to Australia now, would you say?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, the government deliberately slowed down visa processing over the last year or so until Christmas of last year.

ALICE MATTHEWS: Are there other factors, though? There’s a lot of anti-immigration sentiment floating about too?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, one thing I’m really, really pleased about is that the Australian community and the Australian destination for education remains a really popular choice for the millions of students across the world that want to see and want to get a world-class education. Sentiment for the Australian market and an Australian education is really high. It’s higher than Canada and it’s higher than some of the other countries that we compete with. There are four big English-speaking countries that attract international students. That’s the UK, Canada, the US and Australia. And I’m really pleased that Australia remains the top choice for many, many students across the world. Why? Because we’re open. We are clean, we’re healthy and we’re welcoming. So, I want to continue to have that conversation within Australia and of course with the many, many millions of students across the world that want to look for a world class education.

ALICE MATTHEWS: So now that the numbers are being increased again, do you think we’ll be able to reach those numbers that we need?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, obviously across the board we’re seeing double digit growth allocated in the system, and I think that’s a pretty strong endorsement from the federal government that they want to see growth, and they want to see that growth in our Australian universities. Our job now is to go out, recruit those students, continue telling the story that Australia’s open for business, open to the students from 140 countries, come and study with us, come and study in our cities, in our regions, right across this great country. We’ve got world-class offerings, we’ve got welcoming communities, and we want you to come and be part of the Australian community while you’re studying.

ALICE MATTHEWS: Luke Sheehy, thank you so much for coming on the program.

LUKE SHEEHY: Thanks for having me, Alice.

ALICE MATTHEWS: My pleasure.

ENDS