Comment by UNE Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Moran:
Yesterday's announcement of a planned national limit on international students is, in the context of right now, good news for UNE.
In 2025 we will be permitted to take in 700 international students, more than double the number that made it to UNE through the visa processing system introduced this year.
But: we can't get those students if they can't get visas. Prioritising visa processing to help regional universities meet their 2025 student caps will be vital if this new policy is to help regional universities address their fiscal challenges.
Over the past few years, the nation's regional universities have collectively reported a 50 per cent decline in international student numbers, and a 61 per cent drop in revenue.
In 2024, UNE has 64% fewer international students that it expected (and budgeted for), largely due to the effects of changes to the migration strategy. This shortfall represents a loss of approximately $11.5 million in 2024. The impact will be even more severe in 2025 because of a lower number of continuing students.
Minister Clare has announced that MD 107 is to be revoked: good news. But indications are that it will only be revoked on January 1, 2025, subject to the passage of legislation: bad news.
If the current visa processing system persists through until the end of 2024, with minimum 12 week processing times, we have little chance of getting our 700 students in 2025. Even if MD 107 is revoked today, we do not expect a flood of internationals applying to study with us over the next few months.
Indications are that if allocation caps aren’t met, the unfilled portions from each university will be amalgamated back in a pool for reallocation. There is so far little detail around this process. Well implemented, it is another opportunity to strengthen capability in the regions and support diversity in the Higher Education sector. We await that important detail.
Of course, the government has the right to set migration levels. Doing this by compromising our world-leading knowledge economy – international student education – is not a "clever country" approach. When UNE abruptly lost $11.5 million earlier this year, we lost income that would have gone to making this university better for our communities and all our students – 95% of whom are Australian.
International students are people we at UNE can assist to reach their life aspirations, and who add enormously to our communities and our country more broadly. We look forward to working further with government in this spirit, and building practical policy that can sustainably support this immensely useful opportunity.
