Universities losing foreign students to trade colleges

As universities reveal large numbers of overseas students are abandoning degrees, an industry insider says the bipartisan push to cut visas is causing panic course-hopping into training in carpentry, plastering and painting.

Students know Australia needs plumbers and carpenters.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Foreign students are dropping out of expensive Australian university degrees to course-hop into cheaper trade diplomas, an industry leader has revealed.

International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said some students are being “exploited by onshore agents’’, who do not belong to his industry association.

He said international students are “desperate to stay in Australia’’, due to the bipartisan push to lower immigration through cuts to student visas.

“Some of them are jumping out of university and doing carpentry courses, or painting and decorating, bricklaying, because they know they’re the types of courses that now give you a migration possibility, when a cookie-cutter bachelor of business or accounting no longer will give you a migration pathway,’’ Mr Honeywood told The Australian.

“I can’t tell you the number of Uber drivers I’ve met in recent times telling me they’ve switched from a Bachelor of Business degree to painting and decorating.’’

Mr Honeywood, whose organisation represents Australian universities as well as reputable education agents, said international students are more likely to have a visa approved to attend university, which charge them up to $50,000 a year for a degree.

“It’s much more difficult to get a student visa to come to Australia to do a diploma course than it is to get a higher education visa,’’ he said.

“The universities have a lower risk rating, so they’re more likely to get a student visa.’’

IEAA chief executive Phil Honeywood.

Mr Honeywood said unscrupulous education agents in Australia are telling foreign university students that ‘’you’ll never get an accounting job – Australia needs plumbers and carpenters, jump into those courses’’.

“It all sounds good, jumping into a carpentry course, but you can’t become a licensed apprentice in Australia in any of those trades unless you’re an Australian citizen,’’ he said.

“They’re given a false hope that they’ll become an accredited tradesperson when they can’t, unless they go through an apprentice pathway.’’

Mr Honeywood – who is a former Liberal Party minister for tertiary education and training in the Victorian government – said the international education sector had welcomed the Albanese government’s proposed integrity measures for the sector.

Labor withdrew its legislation in November after the Coalition said it would oppose measures to cap the number of foreign students in each university and private training college.

Mr Honeywood said Australia needs to “weed out bad education agents’’.

“My association believes that most of the integrity measures in the failed or stalled legislation are worth pursuing, particularly the ban on cross ownership as an education provider and an education agent,’’ he said.

“We’re overdue for weeding out good agents from bad agents – other countries have done that, such as America – so there’s been an unfortunate lack of regulation.’’

Mr Honeywood is a member of the federal government’s Education Visa Consultative Committee, which is chaired by the Department of Home Affairs.

His comments follow The Australian’s revelation that international students have gone missing from several universities – including nearly half the international student intake at the Queensland University of Technology last year, and a quarter of international students from Griffith University.

International students have false hope that a trade course will make them an accredited tradesperson.

QUT’s 2024 annual report states that “the retention rate for international students dropped to an unusual and historic low of 53.6 per cent because of an unusually high number of students who did not meaningfully engage from the outset’.’

The university is refusing to say where the students came from, where they went after dropping out of study, or whether it had severed ties with any international recruiters.

“QUT works with international education agents to recruit students committed to completing their studies with us,’’ a spokeswoman said.

“We review our agents regularly.

“Commencing students withdrawing from study can be influenced by a range of factors including visa processing times, student deferrals and individual decisions around course or provider.’’

Griffith University – where one in four international students went missing – said it “maintains rigorous oversight of our international education agents’’ but would not reveal if it had cut ties with any agents.

“We are aware of industry-wide concerns regarding student poaching,’’ a spokesperson said.

“Griffith University has implemented robust safeguards to protect our vulnerable students from such practices and works with trusted agents who demonstrate ethical recruitment standards.’’

The rival University of Queensland would not reveal how many students it lost last year, but said its 2023 retention rate for commencing international students was 94.1 per cent.

“Our retention rates for international students have been very stable during the past five years,’’ a spokeswoman said.

The most recent federal Education Department data shows that 13.2 per cent of all international students dropped out of university in 2022.