E&OE

SASKIA MABIN: …a topic that we have spoken with you about in the past and it has been on the radar for a lot of this year is Federal Labor’s international student cap. It’s gone through the Senate. The Senate has brought back a report recommending that this be passed but with some significant amendments. Just to recap, Labor is hoping for a 30 per cent reduction in international students here at our Australian tertiary education providers from 2025. And in numerical terms, that means 270,000 international student enrolments in 2025. Luke, you on behalf of Universities Australia, made a submission to this committee. You are not pleased about it. How are you feeling today given what the Senate has now come back with?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, we will wait for the Senate to actually vote on this bill, which we know now will not be probably until November. And the damage to this sector has already been done since December or just before Christmas last year. The then Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neil put in place Ministerial Direction 107 and that’s taken a sledgehammer to the international education sector in Australia. During this year we’ve seen a 23 per cent drop already in visa approvals and it’s devastating. We are talking about a $50 billion industry for Australia that delivers not only for international students, delivers for our research effort as a nation, delivers for great cities like Canberra, but also helps subsidise the experience for Australian students to get a world-class degree. So, we’ve been talking to all sides of politics and independents and crossbenchers to say the damage is already being done from 107 and then the bill to cap places over the years ahead is yet another attack on this sector. So, we are not happy either way, but what we want to see is this Ministerial Direction 107 go. The government says that they’ll get rid of it when this bill passes. That’s days and days away and we are saying that’s going to cause almost $770 million of economic damage while we wait for it. So, we have got a long way to go, I think.

SASKIA MABIN: Independent Senator for the ACT David Pocock was on the Breakfast Show with Adam Shirley speaking on this topic. Let’s take a little listen to some of what he had to say:

[David Pocock]: I think it’s going to particularly affect the ACT given the impact that it will have on two of our bigger universities, the ANU and the UC who are struggling financially. I am really concerned this is the Coalition and Labor, again, not caring about the ACT.

Luke, the ANU, just very recently, just within the last week, announced that they are really struggling financially and saying publicly that going forward they will be a smaller university. They will have to make some cuts because of their financial situation. I mean, how concerned are you specifically about the universities that we have here in the ACT which are world-class?

LUKE SHEEHY: You do, you are right. You have world-class universities in the ACT. The University of Canberra and the ANU, including other universities like Catholic University, Charles Sturt University and UNSW have smaller campuses in the city. But this is a really highly successful sector for Australia and international education served us so well over four decades. I am completely puzzled why both sides of politics are treating this incredible success story, this incredibly important industry for Australia with such disregard.  We have seen it with the changes to visa processing under this direction 107 and we are seeing it with this build to cap places over the long run. We need the income from international students to drive world-class outcomes at our universities, but also drive important industries like tourism and hospitality. So, it’s going to do economic damage to the whole country, and we know that the delay in visa processing arrangements that we are seeing today is having a $650,000 impact on the Canberra economy every single day. So, we want to get some certainty and stability for our universities right across the country so they can continue to deliver. It’s really important to remember that universities are not-for-profit. So, every dollar we make from an international student’s tuition fees goes back into our world-class infrastructure and teaching experience and supports jobs, not just jobs at universities but jobs in countless small businesses across Australia that are located near universities. So, we are really worried about the long-term economic damage that this will have.

SASKIA MABIN: Yeah, I have got one final question for you Luke before we speak with an international student here in the ACT, a local Pacifica youth advocate. But Luke, I would like to know from you for some time, universities across Australia have relied on international students for a large portion of their revenue. Maybe they are not getting enough from governments, I don’t know, but certainly international students pay through the nose to study here. How else could universities now look to get their revenue from elsewhere and deal with this cap going forward?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, that’s a really great question and what we are saying to the government and the opposition for that matter is if you are going to curtail the number of international students that we can enrol in our world-class universities, then we are going to be asking you for more money to fund the research and teaching we do that delivers for all Australians. So, it’s going to take more investment from the Commonwealth Government to support our universities to continue what they do. I am deeply worried about job losses, cuts to services, cuts to programs at our universities, particularly those in places like Canberra, but right across the country. So, we have got to make sure that the government recognises, and the opposition for that matter, what damage they could do with the student caps and the continuation of this Ministerial Direction 107.

SASKIA MABIN: Luke Sheehy, we will leave it there. Thanks for your time this afternoon.

LUKE SHEEHY: Great to be with you.