Professor Andrew Norton (Australian National University) makes a well reasoned case for Australia not needing caps on international student numbers. He suggests recent changes to regulations will be sufficient to correct problems with the system. However, I suggest some of these problems are political, rather than administrative, but the government's proposed close regulation will make things harder for them, rather than easier. Universities should be ready with alternative policy proposals, for when this government, or a future one, realises they need another solution.
As Professor Norton points out the pent up demand for international education caused by COVID coincided with a a shortage of housing in Australia. But as other commentators have pointed out, these are not necessarily connected: students have different housing needs. Reducing the number of students competing for inner-city share houses and on-campus dorms, will not provide suburban houses for Australian families.
The Australia government proposes to set quotas for the number of students in each course at each university. A political calculation has been made to set the quotas higher at regional universities in sensitive electorates, and lower for capital city universities. The elite capital city universities are perceived to be well off and it is assumed will not elicit sympathy from voters. It is likely a flawed calculation.
Apart from the politics, Australia needs universities to provide a trained workforce to service the community and support the economy. International student revenue has been used to supplement decreasing funding from government.
In my submission to the accord panel, I suggested Australian universities need to design an education product which appeals to both domestic and international students. These should not be reliant on a work visa to be attractive to international students. They should not be dependent on students, international or domestic, being at a particular location, country, or on a campus. The universities should end the arms race of offering more and more advanced degree programs to each student. Vocational and university offerings should be combined to meet current real world work needs. Education should be offered online wherever the student is, in small nested packages, which can build into degrees.
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