Urgent action needed for international higher education

Economic output associated with Australia’s third largest export industry will shrink by as much as $600 million in 2011 and by $1.2 billion to 2012, unless urgent action is taken to address pressing policy concerns.

The forecast reduction in the international education industry, which last year generated $18 billion in exports (50% more than tourism), will also see the loss of up to 9,000 jobs in 2012 across Australia, rising to a total loss of 19,000 jobs by 2012, as related sectors such as retail and hospitality are hit by the downturn.

The ATN has released “The Economic Implications of Fewer International Higher Education Students in Australia”. It is the first report to concentrate such analysis on the nation’s universities which in 2009 attracted 203,324 international students.

ATN Chair and Vice Chancellor, UTS, Professor Ross Milbourne, said the most immediate issue for government to address was the impact on the sector of policy in regards to student visa conditions, permanent residency issues and regulation of quality issues in the sector.

“What we are seeing from current policy settings is potentially economic suicide,” Professor Milbourne said.

“Government must reconsider its policy settings. As outlined in the report, Higher Education – the largest economic and employment generator in the sector, with the least problems in terms of quality – is already suffering reduced enrolments and lower visa grants in what appears to be a case of significant collateral damage arising from policy measures aimed mainly at other sectors in a challenging international environment,” Professor Milbourne said.

“We absolutely accept there have been serious issues related to international students that needed to be dealt with. But those did not relate to universities. Yet, the Government has made no differentiation in its crackdown on student entry requirements.

“By refusing to deal with university students in a separate category, we are about to see a massive economic fallout which will reverberate across the nation in the form of job losses in tourism, retail trade and hospitality - one we simply cannot afford.”

The report, commissioned by the ATN from the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy (JCIPP) at Curtin University shows that:

Higher education is the most significant part of the sector. With 32% of the international student market it generates 57% of the export revenue.
International onshore education is now a billion dollar industry in its own right in New South Wales and Victoria, generating value-added of around $3 billion in each state. It has an overall economic impact of $1.4 billion in Queensland.
On average each international student in higher education generates $50,874 for Australia, 36% of this being spent on fees with the remainder mainly on accommodation, food, restaurants and retail.
For every two international students enrolled in an Australian university one extra job is created.
This value add from international university students in 2009 saw an additional 102,387 jobs created, of which 83,050 were created outside the education sector.

The ATN has this week advised the Federal Government it is seeking to have a new visa category implemented to address this issue and that of the looming skills shortage in researchers, many of which must be attracted from overseas.

The ATN group has a particularly strong international focus and overseas student profile with the five universities comprising a significantly greater proportion of international students than all other Australian universities – over a third of our student population (34%).

Download the report