Last week, the lies and propaganda promoting the unprecedented increase in international students peaked.
Not only did we see researchers from the University of South Australia argue that there is no link between the record surge in international students and the cost of rent, but we also saw the CEO of the elite Group of Eight (Go8) universities, Vicki Thomson, claim that international education is the nation’s third largest export.
“It [international student education] supports the economy, it was responsible for [a large part of] our economic growth in 2023 … so there’s a big impact on the broader economy”, Thomson said.
“Be careful what you wish for. Do not put our third-largest export sector at risk”.
“A $51 billion economy and, more than that, a sector which actually builds our skills base [and] does not damage the economy but enhances the economy”.
“Do not put that at risk for cheap political point scoring”, she said.
Thomson’s claims are demonstrably false.
The following chart from the Department of Education shows that international education was Australia’s fourth largest export, worth $51 billion last financial year.
However, this $51 billion export figure is significantly overstated.
In September 2024, the ABS released a report admitting that one-quarter of the reported education export figure comprises money earned in Australia and, therefore, is not an export:
All expenditure by international students studying in Australia is recorded as an export in the Balance of Payments statistics published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This includes expenditure on tuition fees, food, accommodation, local transport, health services, etc., by international students while in Australia. This expenditure contributed $50.5 billion to Australia’s exports in the 2023-24 financial year.
The classification as an export of expenditure by international students studying in Australia does not depend on how the students fund their expenditure in Australia. Some of the expenditure is funded from overseas sources. While it is not possible to be precise, ABS estimates suggest around a quarter of the expenditure (around $13 billion in the 2023-24 financial year) is funded by international students working in Australia for Australian employers.
However, the ABS stated that it won’t change how it reports education exports because it is an international standard.
The ABS’s estimate that one-quarter of expenditure is earned in Australia is highly conservative.
We know that a large share of students work off-the-books for cash. Therefore, the true amount of income earned by students in Australia would be higher (meaning exports are lower).
Australia also loses significant sums of money abroad via remittance payments.
According to the World Bank, Australia sent US$8.6 billion in net remittances to other nations in 2023. A significant share of these remittance outflows would originate from students working in Australia and sending money home.
The ABS noted in its report that remittances are not considered when measuring education exports:
“Personal transfers of cash or in-kind (sometimes referred to as workers remittances) between residents and non-residents are recorded under secondary income”.
“However, if an international student receives funds from their non-resident parents who live overseas, or if the student transfers funds back to their home economy, both of these transactions would be out of scope of Australia’s balance of payments as they are transactions between non-residents”.
To ensure transparency, the ABS should include a footnote stating that education exports are a gross figure that excludes money earned in Australia by students, remittance outflows, and commissions paid by institutions to foreign agencies.
The government, media, and industry figures like the Go8 should stop presenting this fantastical figure as fact.
Moreover, Vicki Thomson’s claim that Australia’s extreme concentration of international students “builds our skills base [and] does not damage the economy but enhances the economy” is false.
Last week, we witnessed a group of more than 200 ‘old-school’ academics known as Public Universities Australia accuse universities of enrolling international students who struggle to speak English. This has facilitated “soft marking” and passing students regardless of the standard they have achieved, resulting in a “dumbing down” of the nation.
“There is ongoing slippage of academic standards with failure by TESQA to contain that slide’’, the group said in a scathing submission to the Senate education committee.
“There is degraded assessment … (and) increased risk from artificial intelligence”.
“Universities … tend to pass and graduate most students irrespective of the level of education actually achieved”.
“There are manifestly worsening gaps in graduates’ basic knowledge and skills”.
“This is nothing less than a dumbing down of the entire country”, Public Universities Australia said.
These concerns align with last year’s report by the Guardian’s Caitlin Cassidy, which documented mass cheating across Australia’s universities, led by international students.
Australia’s two highest-ranked universities—the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney—have recently been mired in cheating scandals involving international students.
Caitlin Cassidy also reported that academics working at Australia’s universities were precluded from failing poorly performing international students because it risked the sausage-factory business model:
Meanwhile, domestic students have been forced to help non-English-speaking students complete their courses through group assignments. Some university tutorials have even been conducted in foreign languages, degrading the experience for local students.
What further evidence is needed to prove that extreme volumes of international students are detrimental to Australian education standards and productivity?
Source: Salvatore Babones (2019)
Operating low-quality student visa factories for maximum throughput and revenue was never in Australia’s best interests.
Pedagogical standards and the experience and welfare of local students have been destroyed, dumbing down Australia.
