The Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee public hearings yesterday on the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024 [Provisions] was a packed program, with peak bodies, universities, unions, business associations, the Law Council and the Department of Home Affairs appearing before the Committee.
Read some of what they had to say, in their own words, below:
Luke Sheehy, Chief Executive Officer, Universities Australia
“…the Bill, as drafted, is more a political smokescreen than an instrument for good policy as the Government seeks to gain an upper hand in a battle over migration ahead of the next election.”
“Using students as cannon fodder in a poll-driven battle over migration and housing simply doesn’t add up.”
Vicki Thomson, Chief Executive and Director, Group of Eight
“…we very clearly, with no ambiguity, do not support a blunt cap on international students…”
“Go8 estimates…that capping international student enrolments to pre-pandemic levels of 2019 for Go8 members against 2023 post-pandemic enrolment figures would cost the nation over $5.3 billion in economic output and over 22,500 jobs in the economy”.
Alec Webb, Chief Executive Officer, Regional Universities Network
“Ministerial Direction 107 has essentially shut Australia’s international education industry to all but a handful of providers…”
Senator Mehreen Faruqi
“It seems to me that this bill is a migration bill disguised as education policy…”
“I think this bill represents one of the greatest legislative threats to university independence that I have seen…”
Felix Pirie, Deputy Chief Executive, Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia
“…recent public rhetoric has demonised international students and the sector that supports them…the bill includes provisions that are, to be frank, a job killer…”
Dr Terri MacDonald, Director, Public Policy and Strategic Research, National Tertiary Education Union
“…if this bill is implemented in its current form as unamended, as it is, then at some point there would be job losses in the sector.”
“…we do know that once there are ministerial powers in place at some point, they will be used…the issue for us is that at some point you will have an interventionist style government, interventionist style minister come in and for whatever reason could drill down to those levels and significantly cut the number of students…”
Dr Jodie Trembath, Director of Skills, Employment and Small Business, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
“We are concerned that the rhetoric surrounding this Bill is too loose, that it implies a natural association between being privately-owned and being unscrupulous or ‘shonky’.”
Ms Ngaire Bogemann, National President, National Union of Students
“…the proposed caps are not only a worrying overreach of ministerial power but also stand to have a damaging impact on our reputation and sustainability as an international student destination.”
Professor Rufus Black, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Tasmania
“I can understand why a government seeking to create a more managed system would look to have retained some form of ministerial power if the profile of our international student mix was really out of alignment with our national interest. So my interpretation of what that’s doing is giving the minister a power under a managed system to deal with, effectively, forms of market failure in terms of serving our national interest.”
Professor Duncan Maskell, Vice-Chancellor, University of Melbourne
“…most of our students don’t live in the kinds of accommodation that young families would want or require…it’s just obvious from all of the data that they’re not the problem actually…”
Professor Sharon Pickering, Vice-Chancellor and President, Monash University
“…the proposed Ministerial enrolment limits if enacted could destabilise Monash’s campuses, our teaching and learning and our world leading research.”
Professor Scott Bowman AO, Vice-Chancellor and President, Charles Darwin University
“…we set some ambitious goals and we were recruiting great numbers to the Northern Territory last year…because we have such good methods of vetting our students we were up in the very high 90s almost 100% visa acceptances, this year that has dropped by 67%, so that has been a real disaster for us…”
Professor Deborah Terry AC, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Queensland
“I think at an institutional level our institutions are different. The mission-based compact is a very appropriate tool to be having those discussions both around domestic load, around international load and around the mix, and 2026 would be an appropriate time to begin those discussions.”
Giving the final word to Senator Sarah Henderson, directed to Department of Home Affairs officials (more on this session to come in TKN):
“…the confidence, particularly with the smaller and regional unis and the private providers is plummeting through this absolute chaos in terms of how you’ve administered visa approvals.”
Read TKN’s summary of the day, Senate hearing on the ESOS Bill: Here’s what happened.
You can watch a replay of the hearings here.
