Over the weekend, CEO of the International Education Association of Australia, Phil Honeywood penned an opinion piece in The Australian Financial Review.
His point is to warn the public that Australia’s reputation as a great educational destination is at risk.
The Koala has been paying attention to the subtext of such stories coming out at the moment as most are finding ways to speak directly to reviews currently coming up to decision time, these being: the inquiry into the International Education and Tourism sectors by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade; and the Review of the Migration system.
The issues Honeywood raises:
- A tax on international students
Honeywood states that some education leaders are calling for a tax on international students, saying “Certain education leaders are calling for a new tax impost on any overseas student who chooses to study here. There is a danger in all of this that Australia will yet again be seen by our neighbouring countries as primarily focused on making as much money as possible out of their young people.”
Rightly so.
- Student working hours
Student working hours would appear to be one issue still being discussed. Honeywood states “Powerful industry bodies are demanding that the government reinstates uncapped work rights for students who are supposedly here to study full-time.”
It’s a notion Honeywood rejects, however, “it led to the wrong motivation for young people from certain countries to apply for a student visa in the first place. Those who genuinely wanted to focus on their studies even came under pressure from family members back in their home country to work as many hours as possible in order to send Australian dollars back to support other struggling family members” he says.
- Government Funding of Higher Education
Finally, he makes the case that higher education institutions have been poorly funded by successive governments and it is for this reason institutions have looked to international students to cross-fund core functions of the institution.
“Few can refute that successive Australian governments have not provided sufficient financial resourcing of public education institutions. OECD benchmarks have made this abundantly clear. As a consequence, public universities have long resorted to cross-subsidising funding shortfalls from what many regard as already excessively high tuition fee imposts on overseas students.” Says Honeywood.
The op-ed can be read in full here.
