Key Points
- Universities Australia president David Lloyd will deliver a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
- Lloyd will criticize the capping of international enrollment, saying international students have become a “scapegoat.”
- He will also argue that the government is not putting enough money into Australia’s “underfunded” education sector.
Funding for universities is not sufficient and international students are being used “as scapegoats to blame the housing crisis”.
These are some of the arguments Universities Australia president Professor David Lloyd will make in a speech to the National Press Club of Australia later on Wednesday.
Calling for bipartisan support for “underfunded university teaching and research”, Lloyd will say that the university sector – currently in the midst of a “problem-rich era” – has often been at the center of political debate rather than of policy development.
“Make universities a political priority rather than a political pawn,” he will say.
Lloyd will emphasize that “universities matter” – not just for the staff employed at those institutions or the students enrolled there, but also for the Australian community as a whole.
The financial problems currently facing universities will be highlighted in Lloyd’s speech, including the loss of almost $4 billion due to the closure of the Education Investment Fund; a $2.5 billion annual shortfall in research grants, equity support and compliance; and a reduction of around $800 million per year in national funding under the Work-Ready Graduates Scheme.
Another important issue affecting universities that Lloyd will address is the cap on international students.
In 2025, the government will cap international student enrollments at 270,000 in a bid to make the system “fairer” and limit net migration levels.
Announcing the changes in August, Education Minister Jason Clare said the change was needed to put the sector on “a more sustainable footing for the future”.
Lloyd will, however, say that 61 per cent of Australians view international students as “an important driver of our economic growth” and that the cap will weaken the Australian economy.
“Having intentionally fewer students here will only worsen an already widening funding gap at a time when universities need greater support to run their operations and support the nation’s ambition through the achievement of national priorities,” he said.
Lloyd will argue that the issue of housing availability in Australia is falsely blamed on international students.
“The chair of the government’s National Housing Supply and Affordability Council even says so, admitting last week that capping international student numbers would have little impact on Australia’s housing problems.
“Let’s be honest: it’s supply-side issues, not international students, that are the real cause of the housing crisis.”
Lloyd also notes that a drop in education and tourism exports erased 1.5% of Australia’s gross domestic product in the first half of 2020 after former Prime Minister Scott Morrison told students internationals to “return home”.
“The long-term damage caused by Anthony Albanese now telling Australian international students to ‘stay at home’ remains to be seen… Chances are it won’t be pretty,” he will say.
