By Gloria Leung
In May of this year, the Australian government announced a legislative package that would constrain the enrolment of new international students, saying this was intended to alleviate the shortages in the rental market. However, together with the recent changes in education policies, such as the student visa, the Temporary Graduate Visa programs and Prac Payment, this has left international students wondering about the government’s credibility in offering them a prospective education.
The CEO of the International Education Association of Australia, Phil Honeywood, said the latest measures on student visas will diminish Australia’s status as a welcoming study destination country.
The media release stated that the government would cooperate with education providers to limit the number of international students enrolled over a particular time period. In his budget speech, Jim Chalmers said the cap could ease the pressure of living costs.
Yet, Greens leader Adam Bandt said the government is using migration policy as a scapegoat for delving into the root problem of the housing crisis, according to SBS News.
A Property Council of Australia report found that international students are not the reason for the housing crisis. Rents began rising in 2020, despite the fact that the majority of international students had gone back to their home countries. The report also found that to mitigate the impact of that returning international students have had on the rental market, the government must increase the future supply pipeline of purpose-built student accommodation to 84,000 new beds by 2026.
The Australia Institute published a report in July 2023 about the public’s attitude towards higher education. They concluded that Australian universities have become more commercially interest-driven. This business model has pushed universities to become overly reliant on international students’ tuition fees, which account for 51% of total funding for universities in Australia, compared to the OECD average of 22%.
Does that mean international students are cash cows to the government, who hope to send them away after using them to inflate the economy?
International students are undoubtedly assets in Australia; according to recent market research by the National Australia Bank 60% of their expenses are local consumption of goods and services, and the remaining 40% are their tuition fees
Housing shortages were always a hidden problem before the surge of incoming international students in 2022. In a 2019 report, researchers in real estate said the government has a weak political will. Laurence Troy, one of the report’s lead researchers, said it has long been a dominant political mindset for the government to prefer a passive approach to funding low-income households.
The Conversation also revealed that international students struggle to secure a place to stay, stating that all residents in Australia are in the same boat and that international students should not be blamed.
In fact, the government may have shirked its responsibility to the tertiary education sector; in the announcement of the legislative package, it stated that if universities want to enrol more international students, they need to devise a plan to build student accommodation that can accommodate the number of international students they receive themselves.
If the government keeps turning a blind eye to confront the matter of fair treatments for international students, it will be harder for them to untie the knots of conflicts.
So, is it time for the Australian government to propose a rigorous plan to solve the housing supply problem, which is the root cause of the rental market shortage, instead of just moving around international students?
I like sarcastic jokes, maybe I watch too much Friends.
