The scrapping of Ministerial Direction 107 is good news for the University of New England, for our future international students and for our region.
MD 107 inflicted very serious and disproportionate financial harm on regional universities, including UNE. In 2024, we saw 64 per cent fewer international students than expected. This translated to lost income that would have gone to making this university better for our communities and all our students.
The government’s Ministerial Direction 111 is a welcome replacement and will hopefully provide a fairer and more transparent system – one that recognises the value and quality of regional universities to educate international students.
While it’s a little too early to understand the full impact of MD 111, I am not yet seeing faster visa processing times translate into more visas for our students – we are optimistic for UNE’s Trimester 2, 2025 that more students will have received their visas.
UNE is one of the smaller destinations for international students, but they play a vital role in our communities and often have an exceptional and more personal experience compared with their metro counterparts who find themselves just one of tens of thousands of students.
Our international students immerse themselves in an authentic Australian experience in Armidale and find themselves part of a tight-knit international student community. They often bring their partners and families to Armidale and become involved in many aspects of community life.
They also play an important role in addressing regional skills shortages, such as aged care nurses for our cohort studying their Master of Nursing Practice in Armidale.
Our Higher Degree Research (HDR) students are another success story. While recent numbers are slightly down, MD 111 will provide a boost to rebuilding these numbers, enrolling those who are a good fit for our regional focus.
Such HDR students often work in fields like agriculture and health, they are more inclined to stay in Australia and they contribute greatly to the research capacity of the regions in these important fields.
UNE is a university of universal opportunity, and we’ll always consider innovative ways to offer life-changing educational opportunities to more international students who want to join our community.
Professor Chris Moran is the Vice Chancellor and CEO of the University of New England
