Dumb, dumber, dumberer: Time for Australia to wise up on international students

Talkback radio in Sydney is a dumb place for deciding important matters of policy for Australia. But sadly, that is what has happened when it comes to international education.

Stoked by claims of foreign students causing housing shortages in Sydney, the Peter Dutton-led opposition and the Albanese government spent the last two years announcing policies to discourage international students from studying in Australia, including a cap on student enrolments.

International students make a huge contribution to Victoria’s economy.Credit: Oscar Colman

In the lead-up to the May election, things went from “dumb to dumber”, as anti-international-student measures became a proxy for Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to show how “strong” they would be on immigration. This included proposals to cut student numbers by 80,000, the highest (non-refundable) student visa charges in the world, and prohibitive financial and language requirements on students.

Now we have the US administration of Donald Trump. They have the even “dumberer” idea of a culture war against universities, with a ban on international students at Harvard University.

Time for Australia to wise up. Indeed, developments in the US might even present an opportunity for Australia and our world-leading education sector.

For the record: here in Melbourne, we want more international students, not fewer.

Foreign students are very welcome here. They bring vitality and smiling faces to our city. They help fill labour shortages. They stimulate new construction and housing activity. They create new friendships. They become life-long brand ambassadors for Melbourne. And they provide a massive boost to our economy.

International education is Australia’s biggest export industry that is not dug out of the ground. It is worth more than $50 billion to the economy and generates more than 200,000 jobs.

In the City of Melbourne and Victoria it is our biggest export earner, with 257,000 international students studying here.

The new minister for international education is Julian Hill who has a background in the sector. His appointment is welcome.

As a first move, Hill must lead the government away from a one-size-fits-all approach to international student caps. The government has made clear that caps on international students are here to stay, but the limits should be made much fairer and less arbitrary. Caps should be tailored to the circumstances of each university and each city and region in Australia.

Take the City of Melbourne. International student caps are said to be designed to respond to the housing crisis. In our municipality alone, we can accommodate almost 25,000 students in purpose-built student accommodation – more than any other central city municipality in Australia. And we could build even more if there was certainty around ongoing student numbers.

Sensible government policy would account for the availability of accommodation for international students in each catchment area. The policy could also reflect critical skill shortages. In Melbourne we have critical skills shortages in nursing, early childhood education, construction and software engineering.

Government policy should prioritise international students who wish to study in these fields – they could then go on to address these gaps. International student caps mean fewer nurses, fewer teachers and fewer innovators and entrepreneurs for Melbourne over the coming years.

International student caps also harm Australian students who are studying in Melbourne. The income from international students subsidises the campus experience for local students, which is consistently rated as among the best in the world.

The income from international students also helps build the research efforts of universities, which in turn is critical to driving global rankings and our international competitiveness in emerging high-tech industries. The message from Melbourne is clear. International education is a source of enormous pride for our city, it is our great gift to the world. What is not to love about being a global centre for education and learning?

Certainly, the students absolutely love Melbourne. We are officially ranked Australia’s best student city for 10 years running, and fifth-best in the world under the Global QS Rankings.

Welcoming international students bolsters diplomatic ties to other nations and is a huge boost for Australia’s soft power.

All the politicking has had an impact. To the end of March, there has been a 30 per cent decline in the number of visa applications compared with the same period in 2024.

Australia does have housing supply challenges. But let’s address that problem by building more homes, not attacking the red herring of students.

Australia does have some shoddy “education” providers who engage in visa shams. But let’s go after the shonks instead of causing harm to outstanding education institutions.

There are more than 50 billion reasons why we need to get this right. We cannot let it be another case of the lucky country being dumb, dumber and dumberer!

Nick Reece is Lord Mayor of the City of Melbourne.

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