The federal government is snubbing a Senate committee with a headlong rush to cap the number of international students wishing to study at Australia's universities.
The committee is inquiring into the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill. The matter was referred to it by the Senate on May 16 this year and since there have been several public hearings with 70 submissions received.
"Such has been the desire to make representations to the committee the reporting date for it has been extended several times, including just this week and now is proposed for September 16, 2024," the Executive Director of the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association (AHEIA), Craig Laughton, said.
Mr Laughton said a majority of the representations to the committee opposed the proposed international student cap of Education Minister, Jason Clare.
"The Minister ought to show courtesy to the committee and its members as well as all of those people and groups that have made a submission opposing the decision and put a stop to any movement on international student caps until the committee has reported and he and his department have considered its report. To go ahead before the report is a snub to the six-person committee, which is chaired by Labor Senator, Tony Sheldon," he said.
AHEIA has made a submission to the committee and argued against the student caps. It also has sought co-operation from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) to push the government to drop the proposal.
"We wrote to the NTEU almost two months ago, suggesting we could work co-operatively to retain the international student market for our universities and prevent a number of negative impacts.
"We have reached out to the union and pointed out that the caps:
- will result in a significant reduction in university revenue at a time when the sector is experiencing major cost pressures through changes to industrial law;
- would cut employment opportunities and impact the capacity of universities to appropriately reward higher education employees;
- will limit student opportunities; and
- will harm the country's research capacity and therefore the status and global rankings of Australia's universities.
"So far we have heard nothing."
Mr Laughton said Australia stood to lose billions of dollars in revenue, while universities would suffer major cuts to their revenue streams, a drop in their international rankings, possible job losses and course cutbacks.
