Feb

10

Federal government policy and foreign students

February 10, 2010 | 8 Comments | Stephen King

Thanks to Andre (commenting on my earlier post) for the link to an article by Alan Kohler on the politics of immigration and education. Now, as Dean of Australia’s largest Faculty of Business and Economics I have a strong vested interest in the government’s decisions relating to education and immigration. But the biggest stake-holder and biggest potential loser is the government itself.

Why? Well so far the focus has been on the private colleges that offer vocational courses. But the change to the immigration rules may effect other courses – most notably accounting – that are taught by Universities. For years, foreign students enrolled in these courses have been paying three or more times as much as the government funding for a domestic student in the same course. I do not want to get into the technical economic issue of whether there is or is not a cross subsidy here, but one thing is clear. If the government disrupts the inflow of foreign students then this will significantly undermine the budgets of many Australian universities. All universities will be effected and the loss of revenue will undermine their ability to teach Australian students and to do research. Some of the smaller universities that are highly dependent on foreign students may face liquidity problems.

“So what?”, I hear you say. Well to the degree that our universities hit a crisis due to a federal government induced collapse in the market for overseas students studying in Australia, the problem will fall on the funders of these universities – the same federal government. So I hope the federal government has some of that stimulus money left sitting around. Depending on its approach to foreign students, it may need a big chunk of cash to assist the tertiary education sector in which it is the biggest stakeholder!.


Comments

8 Responses to “Federal government policy and foreign students”

  1. Dave on February 11th, 2010 9:25 am

    Perhaps an efficient and transparent solution would be to auction permanent residency visas and then use the proceeds to fund universities.

  2. Sriram on February 11th, 2010 9:29 am

    I think the sudden change in the immigration is a knee-jerk reaction by the government to the law and order problem facing International students. Instead on tackling the crime problem, government is taking the easy route, by getting rid of the Taxi drivers, as most of these drivers will become ineligible for Australian residency. Most of the 20,000 or so visa cancelled also were potential migrants from South and South-East Asia, so in a way the Labor goverment is implicitly trying to teach these International migrants a lesson:that they should not criticize it’s policies(example. that state police in many Australian cities are corrupt) otherwise they are not welcome.

    In the short run this decision by the Labor government will bring down crime as many of these Taxi drivers will go back to their countries and hence they will not get attacked. But, yes it will effect the Australian Universities in an adverse manner. But that is a problem to be tackled down the road, so the government at this point in time does not care about it.

  3. Annabelle on February 11th, 2010 9:57 am

    I think one issue that probably hasnt been explored enough in this whole issue is the information that both government and migration agents are providing to prospective students.

    A number of my friends (international students from China and India) have highlighted that migration agents and government literature both indicate a much lower cost of living than is the reality for people wishing to attend metropolitan universities (not sure about regional and rural)

    An Indian friend informed me that when we was looking at coming to Australia he was told that he would need to allow $200–$250 AUD per week to support himself, and that he could expect to earn upto $180 per week working around his studies- hence there was an expectation from him (and his parents) that they needed only to supported him in the order of $50-$100 per week.

    Now, no-one i know can survive in Melbourne on $200 a week. Even $250 would be a hard hard struggle. I think a more realistic budget including rent, transport, food and general cost of living would be in the order of $350 per week. When faced with this information and the limited  level of financial resources many students have is it any wonder that international students, particuarly those who come from less wealthy backgrounds end up living in suburbs that are unsafe? (as they are substantially cheaper than being near campus) Or that they end up making more risky choices in terms of travel (eg. late night public transport and walking through said questionable suburbs) to travel between school, work and home? Certainly you cant afford to run a car, or pay for a cab when living on $200 per week.

    This of course doesnt excuse any of the violence, but surely there is also a responsibility for the government and migrant agents to be honest and realistic about living costs so that arriving students arent left with any choice but to accept substandard and unsafe living conditions.

  4. DP on February 11th, 2010 10:17 am

    Sriram,
    I don’t know if Stephen King is adequately monitoring this blog but your comments are a blatant libel. You should either provide evidence of police corruption or withdraw those comments immediately. Personally speaking your sniping is cowardly seeing as you are hiding behind a username on somebody else’s blog.
    What the Federal government is doing is withdrawing visas for ‘soft’ services to such as hairdressing where the recepients are not likely to obtain a permanant visa and where there has been exploitation by some education providers. Try to bring some facts to the discussion and not your personal prejudices.

  5. rohan on February 16th, 2010 12:05 am

    DP,
    Why are you saying Sriram is hiding behind a username..I see even less of any courageous effort from you – you dont even have your name there.
    Perhaps he says there is corruption because there was widespread denial on any attacks and the reasons for it.
    In my opinion, what is cowardly is maintaining the clean image to the world while denying what is happening around you..
    Obviously Sriram is commenting on the timing of withdrawal of visa – why do you think it is difficult for people to see beyond the obvious facts?
    Has there been a mass migration of professionals to hairdressing so that there is no skills requirements?
    You might have the impression that providing a tit for tat comment buries the issue – it is clearly not the case.

  6. Sriram on February 17th, 2010 10:24 pm

    Australian judiciary is a joke!

    -In 2004 an aborginal Australian named Doomadgee who was allegedly murdered by Sargeant Hurley. The investigator instead of conducting a seious enquiry were have beer and meals with Mr. Hurley
    http://www.news.com.au/friends-of-police-officer-led-doomadgee-probe/story-e6frfkp9-1111112714727
    -In 2009, Mr Ward, a well respected community leader in outback Western Australia who was locked in a metal cell in the back of a prison van and driven through the desert in the searing heat. Four hours later he was dead. The guards driving the prison van did not stop to check his welfare or see if he needed a toilet break, food or water until, they say, they heard a thud from the back. Even then they didn’t unlock both the cell doors, and instead threw water on Mr Ward through the chained-up inner door. G4S who were responsible for this terrible crime were retained as a provider of custodial security in the justice system.
    http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/mr-ward-activists-protest-death-in-custody-finding-20090929-gays.html
    - And now this:

    http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article108028.ece?homepage=true

  7. Andre Sammartino on February 18th, 2010 9:14 am

    Sriram, your pursuit of evidence to “prove” your case is admirable.
    But, have a closer look at your examples:
    - are Indian students generally residing in outback communities in Western Australia or Far North Queensland?  The average urban Australian is equally outraged at the cowboy, racist attitudes and behaviours around aboriginal deaths in custody.  And why are you equating treatment of indigenous Australians with that of Indian students?  Don’t you think we can tell the two apart??
    - as for the reporting from “the Hindu”, there is NO evidence that these juvenile offenders were treated any differently from any others of their age in terms of release upon reaching 18. To scream RACISM here is doing nothing more than fanning the flames and distracting discussion away from a serious issue.
    Part of the unfortunate  ‘backlash’ against the complaints from India on this issue is such selective use of evidence to whip up hysteria about a topic that warrants much more balanced analysis.

  8. Sriram on February 19th, 2010 12:50 am

    Andre, Thanks for being very “generous” about Australian legal system.
    -I am very well aware of the difference between treatment of aborgines and Indian students. I was giving some examples of unfair legal system in Australia. And as for your claim:”are Indian students generally residing in outback communities in Western Australia or Far North Queensland?  The average urban Australian is equally outraged at the cowboy, racist attitudes and behaviours around aboriginal deaths in custody.”
    I give an example of double standards in Australian legal system that has nothing to do with where you live in Australia. White Australian terrorist David Hicks was let go scott free whereas many middle-eastern(example,Mamdouh Habib) Australians have been given a raw deal by Australian courts. Another example, the Liberal party bigot Kevin Andrews sent Dr. Mohammed Haneef to solitary confinement for 19 days without substantial evidence against him.
    -Further you say and I quote:”as for the reporting from “the Hindu”, there is NO evidence that these juvenile offenders were treated any differently from any others of their age in terms of release upon reaching 18. To scream RACISM here is doing nothing more than fanning the flames and distracting discussion away from a serious issue.”
    Just because the legal system treats everyone the same does not mean they are right. Going back in history, the legal system in Australia and US did not allow “all” women to vote in elections. Was the legal system justified for considering “all” black vote to be 2/3rd of white vote in USA ? Was South Africa’s legal system justified not providing equal rights to those belonging to majority population during the Apartheid era ?
    -Let us not kid ourselves as to what happened in the past in Australia. I have my sympathies for how Irish, Greek, Italian(even now in private places some people call them “Wogs” and “Dagos”) and other immigrants were treated by the English living in Australia. And I don’t think these kind of treatment needs to be repeated on immigrants arriving now and aborginal people who are living here for time immemorial. It is not enough to be just outraged, We should call spade a spade and get tough on crime. 
    Cheers,
    Sriram