At over 40 percent of net migration, Australia’s overseas student program was growing unsustainably before the pandemic. The border closures hid many of the problems and led the Coalition Government to make policy changes that made the situation much worse when borders re-opened (unrestricted work rights, fee-free visa applications, covid visa).
The Albanese Government significantly delayed acting on the problems and is now playing catch-up using a mixture of sensible changes (e.g. removing many of the demand boosting policies the Coalition Government put in place) as well as cranking up refusal rates using highly subjective criteria. The latter is unsustainable. A long-term solution is desperately needed as international education lobbyists and university vice-chancellors make a bee-line to the doors of relevant ministers complaining Government’s actions are hurting their revenues.
Overseas student policy needs to manage three key issues.
First, undermining of education standards and visa rorts in an environment where education providers seek to maximise revenue. Allegations of ‘visa factories’ have been around for over 20 years that education quality regulators have patently failed to address. Those problems are not just confined to the private Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector but also afflict higher education providers.The Albanese Government has increased funding and powers of the two main regulators. Time will tell if that is enough to clean up the Industry but I doubt it.
Second, there is the risk of a........