Ben Eltham, who teaches international students at Monash University, published an article in Crikey attacking the Albanese government’s “crackdown” on international students, claiming it will endanger “a hugely successful export industry for Australia”.
“Education is a hugely successful export industry for Australia. So why is the Albanese government trying to kill it?”, Eltham asked.
“The International Education Association’s Phil Honeywood told the ABC recently that “we are really in danger of losing a $48 billion a year industry”.
“International students are an easy target”, Eltham claimed. “They don’t have a well-funded lobby group in Canberra”.
“Albanese and Labor say they want to make things in Australia. To do that, the nation needs both export earnings and a healthy higher education system. But a crackdown on international education will hurt everyone”, Eltham argued.
There are a few things to unpack here.
First, the notion that international education is a gigantic $48 billion export industry is pure statistical fraud perpetrated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and repeated by industry lobbyists.
The ABS calculates this fantastical export figure by combining “an average spend estimate from Tourism Research Australia … supplemented by the addition of the total expenditure on course fees”.
The ABS incorrectly classifies all spending by anyone on a student visa as an export, even when the expenditures are paid for with Australian-earned money.
The following chart shows data from the World Bank on migrant remittances to/from Australia:
In 2023, migrant remittance inflows into Australia were only valued at $US1.6 billion and were tracking well below the peak of $US2.45 billion in 2011.
By contrast, migrant remittance outflows from Australia were valued at $US10.3 billion in 2023, giving a record net outflow of $US8.6 billion.
The next chart plots the net outflow in migrant remittances against Australia’s net overseas migration:
Whereas net remittances are plotted against total student visa numbers in the following chart:
As international student and net overseas migration increased, so did the net outflow of migrant remittances from Australia.
The ABS’s fantastical $48 billion education export figure is clearly a giant statistical fraud. Otherwise, why did Australia send a net $US8.6 billion in migrant remittances to other countries in 2023?
Surely if the ABS’ education export figure was accurate, Australia would have seen a strong net inflow in migrant remittances, not a giant outflow?
The inconvenient truth that spruikers like Ben Eltham never acknowledge is that the overwhelming majority of expenditure in Australia by student visa holders is funded by them working in Australia.
Based on the remittance data presented above, international education is far more likely to be an import, since the amount of money sent to home countries by migrants has risen in proportion with the rise in international students.
Hilariously, Radio 2GB ran an alarming report showing that international students are raiding foodbanks and charities (listen here):
As Matt Barrie rightfully pointed out, “why are we importing welfare recipients?”. Is this the hallmark of “a hugely successful export industry for Australia”?
Finally, Eltham’s claim that international students “don’t have a well-funded lobby group in Canberra” is laughable. The university and international education lobby is one of the most powerful in the nation.
These lobbyists are the primary promoters of the $48 billion export lie, which is repeated without critical assessment by the media and government.
The reality is that the massive increase in international students has coincided with a significant decline in teaching quality, with the student-to-academic staff ratio rising drastically.
Domestic students have been forced to effectively tutor international students via group assignments, resulting in them completing the majority of the work and cross-subsidising international students’ marks.
The entire international education sector has deteriorated into an immigration racket, with universities and private colleges acting as migration agents rather than educators.
In turn, Australian university vice chancellors have been paid million-dollar salaries for successfully transforming their institutions into low-quality, high-volume migration mills geared on maximising throughput and income.
Despite operating as profit-maximising businesses, Australia’s universities are classified as non-profit organisations and do not pay taxes.
Australia’s tertiary education system should exist primarily to meet the needs of Australian students, rather than international students.
Otherwise, what is the point of being Australian?
