Universities call for funding amid political ‘kneecapping’

Universities Australia CEO Luke Sheehy will call for ‘full and proper’ funding of higher education as major parties ‘kneecap’ the key revenue source of international students.

International students Vaastav Varma, Tamara Bruers and Aashna Kotwani at Sydney University. Picture: Nikki Short

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy will call for “full and proper” funding to the higher education sector, accusing the major parties of seeking to “kneecap” the key revenue source of international students.

After The Australian revealed that the Coalition had canvassed a proposal to impose a flat percentage cap – potentially of 30 or 35 per cent – on international students if elected, Mr Sheehy said he wanted a “fair dinkum consultation over what it looks like”.

Amid uncertainty in the tertiary sector over the Coalition’s election pledge to pursue steeper limits on foreign students, Mr Sheehy will use a speech at the Unimutual Conference in Adelaide on Thursday to push for an increase in overseas students.

Peter Dutton’s frontbench has been consulting the higher education sector on alternative models to cut international student numbers since the Coalition torpedoed Labor’s plan to legislate a cap of 270,000 through provider-based limits in November.

Another proposal that the ­Coalition had consulted on included enforcing a certain percentage limit below the number of international students enrolled in a previous year.

“Our sector has, until recently, used international student revenue to cover commonwealth funding gaps,” Mr Sheehy will say.

“But the ongoing bipartisan attack on our international education sector no longer assures this. And if the major parties are going to kneecap a once-reliable revenue source, we need their full and proper support.”

The proposal to cap inter­national students at 35 per cent of the total number of students per university was floated by the Australian Technology Network of Universities in July, amid fierce debate over how Labor would implement its caps. The peak body estimated the approach would hit the prestigious Group of Eight universities the hardest, forcing four of the nation’s elite universities to shed 20,000 students.

Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson has repeatedly said the Coalition planned to implement tougher caps than Labor, through an approach that will rein in foreign student numbers in Sydney and Melbourne while not harming regional universities.

Regional Universities Network executive director Alec Webb said it was vital the “appropriate nuances and considerations” were taken into account before implementing a flat cap model so larger universities didn’t have an advantage.

Under Labor’s Direction 107, which prioritised visa processing based on the provider’s risk rating, the Go8 saw its international student numbers grow as regional and private providers suffered.

“The key thing, from our perspective, is making sure the broader migration and visa processing regimes are correct,” Mr Webb said.

“It is entirely conceivable to operate in a cap system, but with the incorrect visa processing mechanism that would have quite large impacts for certain types of universities, and we saw this under ministerial Direction 107.

“When all of these caps and models are being considered for implementation, it’s important to consider broader migrationary impacts, as well as the visa processing regimes.”