Big unis have a student problem

Outgoing cabinet minister and incoming University of Canberra vice-chancellor Bill Shorten says international students are “a little bit” scapegoated for the housing crisis. He is a “bit” right about that – they make up just 4 per cent of renters across the country. But they account for 15 per cent-plus in five inner-city local government areas. And there are many more international students, mainly concentrated in big cities, than there were pre-pandemic, a staggering 969,000 enrolments in August – 15 per cent more than pre-Covid August 2019.

This is way more than universities could ever accommodate in campus housing. Plus there are legitimate community concerns that many internationals use student visas as cover while they work full-time and plan to settle here. But by packing them in and howling when the government announced caps on numbers, universities, notably the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, both with 40 per cent-plus of their students from overseas, have breached a condition of their social licence. They exist to serve the Australian community, not to increase their fame with overseas competitors through palatial building programs and increases in research rankings that have nothing to do with teaching.

And so Education Minister Jason Clare is right to want to cap international enrolments, although the government’s formula is awash with anomalies. The opposition also makes a legitimate case that the proposed caps are not hard enough. Where they are both wrong is to allow student numbers to be a proxy for an argument over immigration at the imminent election.