DURING this year's State of the Union address to the US Congress, US President Barack Obama highlighted the important contributions international education makes to his nation.
He posed the question: why do we train international students in our education system to advanced degree level, and then send them home to compete against us? We should encourage them to stay in the US, he argued, to run research labs and build new businesses.
His comments equally apply to Australia.
Australia's international education achievements are notable:
We know that international education has become a multi-billion dollar export earner for our nation.
But more importantly, the international education sector exports successful graduates who are better prepared for future careers as a result of their Australian educational experience.
Graduates we educate have developed valuable skills, learned about Australian values, made Australian friends and networks, and will forever hold our nation in their hearts and minds as a place in which they spent their formative intellectual years.
The impact and value of these outcomes are impossible to estimate.
International education fosters friendships and alliances. When business and political leaders around the world and particularly in our region have graduated from Australia’s universities, we are better placed to understand each other and build shared opportunities.
How do we ensure that international research students who graduate with PhDs in increasing numbers remain in Australia to contribute their expertise as academics or as contributors to industry innovation, or return home and maintain active research connections with their colleagues in Australia?
There is no doubt that the public diplomacy and goodwill outcomes of international education are of enormous benefit to our nation. In the global race for research output and knowledge creation the population of Australian-trained PhD graduates help us to compete against much larger nations, such as the USA.
It is these non-tangible benefits, in addition to the economic benefits, that Australia will lose to other countries unless the government takes fast action on the student visa program.
Latest figures released yesterday by the Department of Immigration again confirm the predicted dramatic plunge in international students. At first glance the statistics suggest that student visa grants have increased overall.
However, look closer and it is clear that there is a significant decline in offshore visa applications and that it is the onshore visa applications that are holding up the international student numbers. Australia has received the lowest number of offshore student visa applications for higher education programs since 2006 - from a height of 99,000 in 2007 to 60,000 in 2011. Total offshore visa applications were down by 20 per cent in 2010-2011, with offshore visa applications from higher education applicants down 17 per cent.
Fourteen of Australia’s 15 key international student markets have slumped significantly. India is down 63 per cent, China is down nearly 25 per cent.
Australia once boasted the world’s best student visa program it was fair, transparent and consistent. However, since the government toughened up student visa arrangements international students have been voting with their feet and applying elsewhere. The immigration figures demonstrate this.
Federal government strategies such as the high level delegation currently being headed up by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Chris Evans, in India are admirable signs of goodwill but they will provide no immediate relief. The new Australia-India Education Council is a most welcome development and it has the support of both governments and the universities, but it will not make our student visa program competitive with the rest of the world once more.
The strong Aussie dollar, which makes life here more expensive for foreign students, is also not going to change overnight.
The one barrier to changing the downward decline of the international student market that can be changed and that can have an immediate impact rests with Parliament. The Knight review into the student visa program is due to be released shortly. It is Australia’s only immediate hope of an end to the tightened visa requirements and a change in the tide of plunging international student numbers.
At the very least, we hope that the new visa program will provide certainty for visa applicants. We hope that it provides fast-track opportunities for genuine students bound for our universities: students who aspire to study in Australia to create a better future for themselves and their communities.
If we do not take action, we are at risk of falling behind as a knowledge economy and becoming culturally introverted. Instead, we call for a future that builds on the forward-thinking success of our historical leadership in international education, ensuring that we build a stronger economy and advance Australia’s world standing.
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