Universities say 14,000 jobs face axe as Labor’s ‘poll-driven’ crackdown bites

Universities are warning that 14,000 jobs could go as the government pushes ahead with its plan to cap international student numbers, a policy the institutions say will have a catastrophic effect.

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy told a parliamentary inquiry the government was using students as “cannon fodder” and unfairly blaming them for the housing crisis.

Universities are warning the economy could be hit hard by the government’s plans.Credit: Oscar Colman

He said proposed legislation to cap international student numbers was poll-driven and a political smokescreen as the Labor government tries to gain an upper hand in the migration battle ahead of the next election.

Sheehy said that even without the proposed student caps, the government had already taken a sledgehammer to the international education sector, with visa grant rates down 23 per cent – or almost 60,000 students – over the past year.

“The impact of having some 60,000 fewer international students arrive on our shores is significant,” he said.

“It would represent a $4.3 billion hit to the economy and could cost the university sector alone over 14,000 jobs – not to mention the flow-on effect for small businesses which rely heavily on international students.”

The federal government has since tightened visa rules to make it harder for international students to come to the country as it uses the sector as a key mechanism to slash migration. Student visa approvals dropped 34 per cent last financial year to 376,731.

In a dramatic escalation of its migration crackdown, Education Minister Jason Clare announced in May that the government would seek to set caps on the number of international students able to enrol in universities and colleges.

The proposed legislation would also give the minister the power to impose caps on a course-level basis, which has been described by universities as an unprecedented level of government intervention.

Group of Eight universities chief executive Vicki Thomson accused Labor of making the sector the “fall guy” in its battle to slash migration in the lead-up to the next election.

“This rushed and poorly framed legislation is a classic example of retrofitting policy to suit dubious politics,” she said.

“Ironically, while the Australian government is effectively building a wall to lock out international students, the US presidential nominee Trump is demolishing one by promising green cards to anyone who wants to study in the US.”

Thomson said that for Group of Eight members alone – which include the University of Sydney, the University of NSW and the University of Melbourne – capping of international students to 2019 levels against 2023 post-pandemic enrolment figures would cost the nation more than $5.3 billion in economic output and over 22,500 jobs.

National Tertiary Education Union president Alison Barnes said university managements and the federal government must rule out any job cuts.

“It’s absolutely outrageous for the vice chancellors’ lobby group to be threatening the jobs of 14,000 academic and professional staff who are an indispensable part of our higher education system,” she said.

“Uncertainty around these changes have created a vacuum allowing opportunistic vice chancellors to put job losses on the table.”

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said the government’s migration crackdown had affected regional universities and private providers disproportionately and accused the government of inflating concerns about integrity to “completely smash” some providers.

Independent Higher Education Australia chief executive Peter Hendy said while he understood that universities had been in “significant and detailed” communication with the government, his sector had had only limited consultation.

He said hard caps across the board would cause many businesses to go under immediately after the caps were implemented, a large number of them almost entirely devoted to international students.

“It would be a catastrophic event for those involved,” he told the parliamentary inquiry.

Felix Pirie, deputy chief executive of the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia, said the current migration crackdown had already led some colleges to sack staff and move to close campuses.

Home Affairs Department group manager Tara Cavanagh was asked about speculation the government would cap international students at 40 per cent of an institution’s total enrolment, but said the decision on setting a level remained a decision for the government.

She said the department was not working towards a target to reduce net migration.

Clare, the education minister, has maintained the changes will be implemented from January 1 next year, but said the government had not finalised the proposed limits for international education providers.

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