E&OE
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Education is our fourth biggest export industry behind coal, iron ore and gas, which might surprise a lot of you. That’s why there’s a fair bit of concern that Labor, One Nation and the Coalition have all announced plans to cut international student and graduate visa numbers in a bid to bring down net overseas migration. But will those policies shoot Australia in the foot? Well, Luke Sheehy is the CEO of Universities聽Australia. He thinks so, and he happens to be in Perth today and has managed to drop by the studio. Good morning.
LUKE SHEEHY: Good morning.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Now, the significance of the education industry, how heavily do we rely on it now?
LUKE SHEEHY: It is a great success story for the Australian people and the Australian economy. And you’re right, nearly 53, probably closer now to $55 billion to the Australian economy. It’s also important to the WA economy and it’s around $5 billion dollars that it adds to the WA economy. For many many years, both sides of politics in Canberra have encouraged universities to enrol international students. Why? Because it helps subsidise the education and the research that our universities do. It helps subsidise the educational experience for nearly one million Australians that are enrolled at our universities. And it turbocharges other industries like tourism, hospitality, and other essential areas of the economy that need international students as workers and their families to support those industries.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: How many then stay in Australia once they’ve completed their degrees?
LUKE SHEEHY: The vast majority of Australian international students at our universities actually go home and many do stay here and rightly stay here.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Do you know what percentage?
LUKE SHEEHY: It’s around 20% stay. So, 80% on average in the university sector actually go home.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: So, 20% stay, 80% go home.
LUKE SHEEHY: That’s right. It does change depending on location, discipline and where the students have come from.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: And are they generally studying the skills that we need?
LUKE SHEEHY: Well, we’ve got to remember that people come to Australia from over 140 countries for a world-class education experience. They’re on an international student visa while they’re here and they’re predominantly here for an education. Many students that get to stay here stay for post-study work rights. This is what the Coalition is going to slash. But importantly, they stay here to contribute to the Australian economy in essential areas that we need. We think about things like PhD students in science and technology, which we desperately need for all sorts of industries to develop our economy. More than half of those current students are international. We want to see them stay in the country. So importantly, there are parts of those skills mix of international students that we want to see continue in the Australian economy.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: But international student numbers have reached record highs. So, wouldn’t it be an obvious thing to cut when we’re trying to bring migration levels down?
LUKE SHEEHY: It’s absolutely right for parties of government to have control over Australia’s migration program and that the community has confidence in the migration program. And that’s probably part of the debate that we’re seeing across the country at the moment. But I think it is important to also recognise that this is a great Australian success story. It not only supports our world-class universities, continue to be world-class, continue to support the Australian students that enrol in our universities, but it also supports the Australian economy. The NAB told us that in 2023 alone, we would’ve been in recession if we didn’t have international students. And we know that the Australian economy is sluggish at the moment. Inflation is high, productivity is low. This is one of the most important industries that we don’t dig out of the ground, and it’s really important for not only across the country and including WA, but really in my home state of Victoria, it’s more than 20% of state GDP contributable to international education.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: So, what’s the concern? If Coalition does get in and these policies do come into play, what does it do to the sector? Are you seriously saying universities would close?
LUKE SHEEHY: It’s not just the Coalition, of course. It is One Nation has joined in this conga line with Labor and of course the Coalition. All of these parties that are polling over 20% and have a potential to be in government after the next election want to see fewer international students in the country. What does that mean? Well, it means the essential revenues that we get from international student tuition fees will be gone and there’ll be a huge gap to pay. So, my question is to those three major parties, who is going to pay for a world-class university sector for Australia if you force international students to go somewhere else?
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: What could the drop be?
LUKE SHEEHY: Well, our assessment on the One Nation sledgehammer approach is up to $13 billion to the Australian economy and billions of that would be impacted directly at universities. We have to see exactly where the behavioural change will come. We know that changing post-study work rights, which is the Coalition’s policy, saying that students can’t continue in the country and contribute to the Australian labour market, we want to see what impact that would have on enrolments.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: What about not allowing families to come?
LUKE SHEEHY: Well, exactly. And we saw that from Tony Burke only a few weeks ago. It is death by a thousand paper cuts in this sector. Every single couple of months we see another change. Is it the world’s highest fees to apply for a student visa? Is it changing the arrangements for visa processing? Is it banning students from bringing their families? What message are we sending to more than 34 million students across the world that want a world-class international education experience about Australia? We’re saying 鈥渄on’t come鈥. And if they don’t come, it will have serious financial consequences for our universities and our economy, but it also sends a terrible message. For nearly 40 years, we’ve educated over three million international students who’ve gone back to their home countries and have a lifelong affinity and warm feeling towards Australia. We’re sending completely the wrong message at a time when Australia should be stabilising our relationships across the region and across the world.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Luke Sheehy’s my guest this morning, the CEO of 黑料老司机. Well, then on another matter, the WA government is sitting on a report which provides different scenarios on whether there could be some mergers between UWA, Murdoch or Curtin. We don’t know how that would work, what courses could merge. Does the potential for those unis to merge some of their courses concern you?
LUKE SHEEHY: Well, I have to have a shout out for the one you didn’t mention, which is ECU because I was in the opening of their beautiful new city campus, which is a wonderful asset to your great city. But what I’ll say.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: They are not included?
LUKE SHEEHY: They’re not included, but the government has sat on this report for a very, very long time. I consulted with Alannah MacTiernan, former minister on this last year. If in fact, it could鈥檝e even been 2024. The message I have for Minister Buti and the Premier and the State Government here is: get on with making the decision. You’re causing anxiety across the universities here in Perth. They’re already suffering from bad policies in Canberra that are affecting international student enrolments, their bottom lines, the way they can educate their students. And we need the State Government to get on and make a decision about what they want to do with potential mergers.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Two universities merged in Adelaide. Has it worked?
LUKE SHEEHY: Well, we’re continuing to see what’s happening. Adelaide University is a fantastic new university that was created out of two universities willing to give it a go. Both those universities agreed to merge. I think what’s happening here in WA is we’ve got a decision of the State Government yet to be made, and the universities aren’t sure what’s happening. It’s a very different scenario and I would encourage Minister Buti and Premier Cook to get on with making a decision and give some clarity to our university.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Well, my money is they’re not sure what to do, but I’ll tell you what, we all want to have a look at that report. Lovely to meet you in person finally, and thank you so much for coming in.
LUKE SHEEHY: Great to be with you.
Ends
