Sydney University accused of ‘gold plating’ campus with foreign enrolments around 50 per cent

Sydney University has revealed its proportion of international students is about 50 per cent this semester as it fronted allegations it was swimming in “rivers of gold” from foreign enrolment fees.

Vice chancellor Mark Scott’s comments came at a Senate hearing into the proposed international student caps, which university chiefs say amount to giving the government “sweeping emergency powers”.

University of Sydney has about 50 per cent foreign students.Credit: Oscar Colman

Scott said the university’s senate had in 2021 determined that about 50 per cent should be the ceiling for the proportion of international students at the institution, which is heavily reliant on Chinese enrolments.

“Our era of solid growth in international students was drawing to a close,” Scott said

“At Sydney, for some years now, we have not planned to move further beyond where we are now.”

In a fiery exchange, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said the institution was getting “rivers of gold” and told Scott he was “gold plating” the university from foreign students’ fees – pointing to a $650 million medical research project – while smaller universities were “on their knees”.

Scott said revenue from foreign fees – $1.4 billion last year – propped up teaching, research and infrastructure projects.

“I don’t think there is a magic number here,” he said. “I don’t think social licence disappears suddenly when you pass a certain threshold.”

International students have become central to Labor’s plan to slash net migration from 520,000 in 2023 to 260,000 by June next year.

The bill to cap international students, introduced to parliament in May, was a significant escalation of the government’s bid to reduce foreign enrolments, which rebounded strongly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proposed legislation would give Education Minister Jason Clare sweeping powers to cap international student numbers at both an institution and course level.

Universities and other higher education providers are expecting to be told this week what next year’s proposed caps are.

Treasury officials told the hearings they had not undertaken detailed modelling on the impact of the caps on Australia’s economy, but would do so after they are announced.

After the hearings, Group of Eight universities chief executive Vicki Thomson labelled this a “scandalous admission” that showed international education was the subject of a “reckless gamble” by government.

University of NSW chief Attila Brungs said the institution had been forced to halt enrolment for three popular degrees due to uncertainty about the caps.

“That will have long-term ramifications for those courses. They won’t come back for three to four years,” he said.

“The international education market is such a complex, such a large and long-term thing, making changes at this late stage is very problematic to Australia’s reputation.”

Western Sydney University vice chancellor George Williams, a constitutional lawyer, said the international student caps bill was poorly drafted and not fit to be passed.

“When I look at this bill it’s remarkable in many respects … the concentration of power is surprising,” he said.

“It’s unfettered, coercive and being concentrated in a minister in a way that you would normally associate, in my experience, with a biosecurity act or a piece of national security legislation.

“You would not expect it in a piece of industry policy, particularly something directed at higher education.”

Education Department deputy secretary Ben Rimmer said he was confident providers would “find it possible to live with” the caps when they received them.

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