international education
campusreview.com.au
The pushback
against
overseas
students
I
International
education
is facing an
uncertain future.
By Phil Honeywood
8
n unprecedented ways, study destination nations
around the globe are addressing the community
impact of tuition-fee-paying international
students. Whether it be Theresa May’s policy of
counting all overseas students as migrants, Donald
Trump discouraging students to come to the US, or
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern potentially
breaking the nexus between education and onshore
migration, the free movement of students hoping to
study abroad is under threat.
With the highest per capita ratio of fee-paying
international students anywhere in the world, Australia
could soon find that it is not immune from similar
policy pressures.
A number of commentators have suggested that
Australia is enjoying a ‘golden age’ in international
education. They point to compound annual
enrolment growth of above 10 per cent, an increasing
diversity of student source countries, and growing
interest from postgraduate students as indicative
of good things to come. However, close scrutiny
of recent political party policy announcements,
government reviews and even parliamentary debate
indicates that international education stakeholders
may need to be alert to unanticipated pushback
against overseas students.
JOBS AND WORK RIGHTS
A few weeks ago in federal parliament, Pauline
Hanson’s One Nation Party moved an urgency motion
in the Senate. The motion called on the federal
government to ascertain how many local jobs were