Unjustifiable damage to Australia: Elite universities lash caps on student arrivals

This is typical  Leftist stupidity: Introducing a new stupid policy to correct a previous stupid policy.

After Tony Abbott wiped out the "boat people" trade, Australia is one of the few Western countries to have complete control over its immigrant arrivals.  Yet the Leftist Albanese government has presided over a huge influx of LEGAL immigration. Every Tomaso, Ricardo and Arroldo seems to get a visa just for asking.  And that has led to all sorts of problems -- a housing shortage in particular.  

So Albanese knows he has goofed and now badly wants to cut immigration back.  But instead of doing the hard yards and looking in detail at why so many people have been allowed in he has just seized on just one large category of immigrants and cut them back.  

But that category is exactly the wrong one.  Education is one of Australia' biggest exports, accounting for a huge flow of money comng into Australia, mostly from China.  So  he is going to cut THAT  back.  Insane.  He is going to cut by far the most beneficial group of immigrants into Australia. It takes a Leftist!  

I don't suppose he would instead implement a complete stop on arrivals from the Middle-East.  Middle-Eastern parasites = good;  Hard-working Chinese = bad, no doubt


Elite universities have attacked the government’s plan to cap international students as an “unjustifiable risk to the nation” and warn tens of thousands of enrolments for next year are in limbo.

The Group of Eight – which includes the University of Sydney, Melbourne University and the University of NSW – has accused the federal government of creating a lasting legacy of political interference in the $48 billion higher education export market.

Top universities have warned that curbing international students would create multimillion-dollar holes in their finances.

In a submission to the government’s draft framework, the universities opposed the international student cap for public universities and TAFEs and instead proposed growth targets for individual institutions.

They criticised the government for introducing a bill into parliament, describing the move as a breach of good faith during the consultation process.

“The central ‘command-and-control’ approach to international education ... represents an unjustifiable risk to the nation,” the submission said.

“There is no evidence the approach will work – and significant evidence that it will fail.

The submission said the plan could not be implemented by the proposed 2025 date and would cause “significant financial damage” to the higher education sector and the Australian economy.

“It is founded on a false conflation of international students and Australia’s housing crisis. And it will leave a long-term legacy of political interference in a $48 billion export industry.”

The comments mark a significant escalation in the rhetoric of the influential group, signifying deep concern within the universities, which are highly reliant on international students to prop up teaching and research.

The eight universities control more than a quarter of the country’s lucrative international education market.

The government in May announced it would cap international student numbers as a key mechanism to halve migration by 260,000, in what was a dramatic intensification of its efforts to stem an influx of foreign students.

Enrolments in the sector were steadily increasing year-on-year before the COVID pandemic. Student numbers plummeted after border closures but quickly rebounded after the Morrison government introduced cheaper visas and better working rights to help stem workforce shortages.

At Sydney University, the largest educator of foreign students in the country, 46 per cent of its cohort comes from overseas, and it relies heavily on the Chinese market. Among its postgraduate degrees, most students are from overseas.

In 2023, it made more than $1.4 billion from foreign students and was the only NSW university to report a surplus.

At the University of Melbourne, 45 per cent of its students were from overseas in 2023, up from 41 per cent the previous year.

Education Minister Jason Clare said the government intended to set limits for every university, higher education and vocational education provider that educates international students.

“This is a really important national asset, and we need to ensure it maintains its social licence,” he said. “We are consulting the international education sector to make sure we get the design and implementation of these critical reforms right, with implementation to begin in 2025.”

Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson said the group was happy to discuss managed growth across the whole sector with the government.

“It’s a very easy political hit to just say cut student numbers as part of a broader migration strategy,” she said.

“What the government has failed to do is address to us why would you go so hard on our universities when all of the evidence points to the absolutely devastating effect this will have.”

Thomson said should the caps be implemented, the 2025 start date would be unworkable given the long lead times in the recruitment of international students.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/unjustifiable-risk-to-the-nation-elite-universities-lash-student-caps-20240616-p5jm76.html

***********************************

My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
    
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

*******************************