Why international university students are good for Australia

International student numbers have plummetted due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Picture: David Clark/AAP

Victorian universities are delighted their state government has come up with a $350m aid package to support them through the COVID-19 crisis, plus a $110m payroll tax deferral.

International education is the state’s prime export, so it makes economic sense for the Andrews government to help universities through the financial calamity caused by COVID-19 and the loss of international students.

Victoria also has committed $45m to help needy international students, many of whom have lost the part-time jobs on which they rely.

Along with NSW, Victoria is one of the two states that benefit most from Australia’s huge education export industry which earned $40bn last year when all of international students’ spending (including things such as rent, living costs and travel) was taken into account.

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But unlike NSW — which appears to assume that Sydney’s high global profile alone will ensure it gets enrolments — Victoria has always worked hard to convince students and their families that it is an attractive education destination.

What is remarkable is how little the federal government is doing to give the international student business its best chance of revival when COVID-19 is over.

International education is a highly competitive business and it’s notable that many of Australia’s competitor countries are doing much more to ensure they remain attractive to the world’s students.

The Group of Eight universities has collected the data and it shows that Britain, Canada and New Zealand have all opened to international students the wage subsidy schemes that are available to their citizens. In contrast, international students in Australia don’t get JobKeeper.

Britain and New Zealand also have made it easier for international students to get visa extensions. Canada allows international students whose study permit had been approved before March 18 (when travel restrictions were introduced) to still enter the country provided they self-quarantine for two weeks.

Canada also makes explicit that international students who are studying online outside of Canada will still qualify for post-study work visas on the same basis as international students studying within Canada. Australia has not, as yet, made that commitment.

The country that is missing in this list of generous governments is, of course, the US. International students are getting no favours from Donald Trump and are unlikely to give him any favours in return. That automatically gives Australia an advantage in attracting students when COVID-19 ends.

Australia has another powerful argument speaking in its favour and that is the success we have had in dealing with the virus. That might persuade students who wanted to go to Britain to opt for Australia.

But it’s still in Australia’s interest to do more. Australian National University higher education analyst Andrew Norton estim­ated this week that universities cleared a surplus of about $4bn on educating international students in 2018. A very small portion of that went to pay vice-chancellors’ excessive salaries. The rest paid for research and infrastructure that benefited Australia.

Nor can we forget that international education supported 250,000 jobs, and that international students spent $24bn in the general economy last year.

It’s also worth noting that international students do not displace Australians from university places. If anything, healthy international student revenues help universities enrol more Australian students at this time when government support of university places is frozen.

In short, we need those international students back.