Education Minister Jason Clare has rejected allegations that his international student caps will destroy Australia’s higher education sector.
University chiefs have already warned the caps would create a black hole in education funding as well as a lasting legacy of political interference in the $48 billion higher education export market. They are highly reliant on international students to prop up teaching and research.
Minister for Education Jason Clare.Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald
Economic modelling commissioned by Sydney University showed the proposed international student cuts could cause a $4.1 billion hit to the Australian economy and cause 21,922 direct and indirect job losses in 2025.
Separate modelling by the University of Melbourne and Monash University said Victoria’s economy could lose nearly $6 billion over three years if student enrolments across the state were cut by 30,000.
Asked whether the new student caps will put a hole in some university budgets, Clare said: “They will make their individual decisions about what it means for their budgets and who they employ and how many students, based on these levels.”
“This is an important part of our economy, no doubt about it. That hasn’t changed. But as students have come back, it has put pressure on the reputation of the sector, it has brought shonkies into the system that we need to crack down [on],” he said.
“To create the impression that this is somehow tearing down international education is absolutely and fundamentally wrong.”
Clare also insisted that his international student caps will benefit smaller and regional universities, despite the backlash from larger institutions.
Much of the concern about the caps have come from big universities, such as the University of Sydney, where up to 50 per cent of students are from overseas.
Clare said his changes would be welcomed by regional or smaller universities, which have not benefited from foreign student enrolments to the same extent.
“[For] some big universities, [foreign student numbers] will be lower than it was last year. [For] some of the small universities ... [it] will be higher next year than it is this year. It’s designed to build a better and fairer system,” he said.
“The fact is universities I mentioned, like Newcastle and Wollongong, like Griffith, Charles Darwin, Latrobe University, are the sort of universities... that will benefit from building a better and fairer way of setting levels for universities at international.”
He said some smaller universities were “haemorrhaging” under the current policy settings, which have concentrated foreign students in the bigger universities.
“[They] were asking me to put in place a better and fairer system to set them up for success as well. This is what this is about... Yes, there are some universities that will be required to enrol fewer students next year than last year. But for many, they will enrol more.”
The government will write to each university today with its specific caps. However, Clare said he would not make those public and the universities could disclose them.