By CLAIRE FIELD

 After almost a decade working to attract more international students, it appears that the government has rapidly changed tack

Pre-pandemic there were concerns about the risks universities were taking in being so heavily reliant on international students from just one or two source countries.

Those concerns are irrelevant for the moment but, if media reports over the weekend are right, there was an equally significant risk which none of us foresaw… our own government!

After almost a decade working to attract more international students, it appears that the government has rapidly changed tack.

Just months after launching a Reputational Taskforce and videos to encourage international students, Education Minister Dan Tehan now wants universities to “put less energy into chasing international students and more into educating our own”. Despite there being no hard evidence that universities are not focussed on local students, the minister is apparently not alone in these views. There are others in government who are more critical.

International education brings profound personal and social benefits to local and international students.

It also has a positive economic impact – not least to thousands of small businesses outside education.

Universities will need to better explain these benefits,* as well as reassure government and the public that the return of international students will not jeopardise educational opportunities for local students nor see international students displace unemployed Australians seeking work.

Universities’ high rates of student satisfaction and ABS data on the sector’s economic importance should not need to be put to government, but equally clearly must be.

Meanwhile, the government needs to get beyond its apparent disdain for universities and recommit to international education. If not for all the benefits it brings (including complementing international diplomacy efforts), then for the fact it generates 40% of annual tourism revenues, let alone its contribution to other sectors of the economy… construction, food and accommodation, retail anyone?

*An exception being Monash U VC Margaret Gardner in this excellent interview.

Claire Field advises on VET, international education and private higher education.