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Skills

September

Richard White made his fortune with logistics software company WiseTech, and has invested some of that wealth into digital education programs for students.

Richard White’s Grok Academy in disarray, sacks dozens of staff

The company was founded in 2013 and charged a subscription for its computer skills courses. It pivoted to free classes with funding from the billionaire.

  • Jemima Whyte
Just 3 per cent of international students study at a regional campus.

Only 5000 overseas students for regional unis will live outside CBDs

Regional universities have been told they must fix their enrolment practices and will face separate regional and metro quotas for 2026.

  • Julie Hare
Harpreet Kaur, founder of Nova Anglia College, says the government’s cap on international students is irrational.

World-first EV degree sideswiped by allocation of zero students

It took four years and $4.3 million to get Nova Anglia College ready to open its doors, but the government says it cannot have any overseas students in 2025.

  • Julie Hare
Lindi-Lee Cowan started as a 17-year-old working as a cleaner after school and made her way up to manager.

Extra 21,000 childcare workers needed now: report

Low pay, excessive overtime, lack of career progression and high levels of burnout are contributing to high attrition rates in the childcare sector.

  • Julie Hare

August

Vicki Thomson, head of the Group of Eight, centre, with Jennifer Hewitt and Melbourne University vice chancellor Duncan Maskell.

‘Reckless gamble’ threatens $48b industry

International students are worth billions to Australia’s economy but the government has not modelled the impact of a drastic cap on their numbers.

  • Julie Hare
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Universities say caps on international students could send them broke, while others disagree.

Sledgehammer to crack a walnut: Why caps are not the fix for unis

Universities have plenty of problems, but plans to limit international students look like a political answer to a much more complex problem.

  • Julie Hare
The move to impose caps  could result in fewer low-risk Chinese students.

Overseas caps could lead to more risky students

As the education sector waits for details on caps on international students, experts warn there could be some dire and unintended consequences.

  • Julie Hare
Australia nearly lost malaria researcher Damian Oyong to the US due to restrictive visa conditions.

Damian Oyong could save millions of lives. We almost lost him to the US

Australia needs the best and brightest to lead our research efforts, but too often we make it difficult for them to stay.

  • Julie Hare
The atlas reveals the hidden job market, Melbourne career coach Rebekah Raftopoulos says.

The hidden jobs revealed by the new skills atlas

A new digital jobs and skills atlas shows where the hidden jobs are and reveals surprising new trends, especially in regional Australia.

  • Tom Burton
Lizzeth Neira is an international student from Colombia studying English and Marketing on the Gold Coast.

‘Careful what you wish for’: The hidden hit in foreign student caps

Foreign student enrolments in Canada plunged far more than expected after the government capped visas, in a salutary tale for Australia.

  • Julie Hare
Plans to cap international students are both reckless and unworkable, a Senate hearing has been told.

Foreign student crackdown is ‘economic self-sabotage’: uni chiefs

The policy change is over-reach, interventionist, Draconian and probably unworkable, scores of experts told a a Senate inquiry.

  • Julie Hare
Caps on foreign student numbers could devastate the economy.

Telling overseas students what they can study is ‘pointless’

Dictating what overseas students can and cannot study to help Australia’s skills profile achieves little because 84 per cent of them go home, ANU analysis says.

  • Julie Hare
The suburbs with the most international students have above-average rental vacancy rates.

Vacancy rates show overseas students being scapegoated: unis

New analysis shows locals in Australia’s three biggest cities have a better chance of finding an apartment in suburbs with large international student populations.

  • Julie Hare

July

A soft labour market and easy access to residency is attracting record numbers of New Zealanders to Australia.

An exodus from NZ means there are more Kiwis here than ever before

Concessions to give New Zealanders quicker access to permanent residency are contributing to high migration levels.

  • Julie Hare
Caps on foreign student numbers could devastate the economy, say university leaders.

Teal MPs seek softening of foreign student cap laws

Legislation to cap the number of international students will be debated this week – even as visa numbers are in dramatic decline.

  • Julie Hare
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June

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil released the discussion paper for public comment.

Fast-track regional migration moves mooted

Labor has flagged abolishing occupation lists for immigrants looking to settle in regional areas.

  • Tom McIlroy
Graduating students should be assisted to find jobs better suited to the skill set.

Employee-starved businesses likely to bypass migrant caps: report

Businesses are likely to recruit workers from New Zealand and working holidaymakers, a major report says, avoiding moves by Labor and the Coalition to cut Australia’s permanent skilled migration intake.

  • Tom McIlroy and Julie Hare
PhD student Dan McDougall decided public relations was not for him.

Higher education key to bigger pay, Labor MP argues

When it comes to the relationship between education and earning capacity, research suggests more is better.

  • Julie Hare
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says the government is “closing loopholes” to bring an end to long-term temporary migrants.

Migration finally turns a corner as reforms bite

Net migration hit a record high of 547,000 in 2023, but in the last three months of the year numbers started heading in the opposite direction.

  • Julie Hare
House and rental prices would fall by just 4 to 6 per cent over a decade under Peter Dutton’s migration plan.

House prices would barely fall under Dutton’s migration plan: Grattan

Peter Dutton’s plan to slash migration would have long-term economic consequences, but little bearing on house prices and rentals, says the Grattan Institute.

  • Julie Hare

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/skills-1nh4