Lobbyists representing Australia’s international education industry have stepped up their campaign for Australian taxpayers to provide billions of dollars in JobKeeper and JobSeeker allowances to international students, claiming Australia is out of step with other nations:
In a letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, seen by The Age and SMH, the NSW government’s International Education Advisory Board last week pleaded for federal assistance for international students and warned of an “emerging public health and humanitarian risk”.
“If we fail to support them (international students) in their time of need, the international education sector, and Australia’s international standing, will suffer lasting reputational damage,” wrote advisory board chairman Stephen Cartwright.
The International Education Association of Australia is also pressing for greater federal support.
“Our key competitor study destination countries are showing far more generosity of spirit than Australia,” chief executive Phil Honeywood said.
“Australia is compromising the recovery of this industry while showing many of our neighbouring countries that we have little regard for the wellbeing of their young people.”
The claim that Australia’s policy towards international students is wildly out of step with other nations is false. We have similar (if not more generous) policies to the United States, Canada, Singapore, Japan and China.
Let’s also remember that Australia has by far the biggest international student concentration in the world at roughly 2.5 times the United Kingdom’s, three times Canada’s, and five times the United States’, according to Professor Salvatore Babones:
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Thus, the cost to Australia of providing JobKeeper or JobSeeker to international students would be enormous.
According to the Department of Education, there were 960,000 international students enrolled across Australia in December 2019:
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Even if only 200,000 of these international students received the $1500 JobKeeper allowance, this would cost taxpayers $300 million every fortnight or $1.8 billion over three months.
Ultimately, Australia’s education sector has benefited most from the boom in international students, collecting a whopping $60 billion in fees over the past five years:
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Australia’s universities have gone to great lengths to bring students here, including first lobbying against travel bans and then subsidising students to circumvent travel bans via third countries like Thailand and Dubai.
The universities, not Australian taxpayers, should provide the financial support to international students.
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
