Anyone doubting that Australia’s international education industry is a backdoor immigration scam or that education ‘exports’ are wildly exaggerated only needs to read yesterday’s article published in Fairfax, entitled “Private colleges pay student recruiters up to $300,000 in bonuses”.
According to this report, private colleges are paying local education agents thousands of dollars in commissions to poach international students studying higher fee courses at universities. These students, whom mostly come from low-income nations like India, Nepal and Nigeria, are looking to switch courses in order to lower their fees and prolong their stays in Australia:
Belle Lim, national president of the Council of International Students Australia, said many students who relied on income from part-time jobs were struggling to pay their university fees during the pandemic, making lower-course fees tempting.
“If their dream is cut short, they will have to find a lower-cost course to stay in Australia and continue their study journey,” she said…
Some students are encouraged to leave university courses that cost up to $30,000 or more in fees to enrol in vocational certificate and diploma courses with fees as low as $6000 a year…
An education agent who recruits students from overseas and who spoke to the Herald on the condition of anonymity said agents were “churning” international students through multiple courses, and he had come across some who had been “hopping courses” for more than 10 years.
Some examples of the outrageous commissions cited in the report include:
- Agents typically receive commissions of 30%, but some agents are demanding colleges pay 50% commissions.
- Additional cash bonuses worth up to $300,000 are being offered to agents that recruit 100 students.
- For example, Skyline International College in Burwood offered an enrolment commission of between 25% to 30% per student on fees ranging from $6000 to $15,600 a year. It also offered bonusses for multiple enrolments.
- All Australian universities also pay agents hefty recruitment commissions and/or bonuses.
The notion that international student fees subsidise education for Australians is a joke. They don’t. They line the pockets of middle-men like agents, allow university administrators to be paid way more than they are worth, and subside dubious research aimed purely at propelling universities up the international rankings ladder so they can recruit even more foreign students.
This is why IDP Education’s Andrew Barkla was Australia’s highest-paid CEO last financial year, earning nearly $38 million:
The company he heads places international students into Australian education and conducts English-language tests…
“IDP Education’s market capitalisation rose from $660 million at IPO to $4.4 billion at 30 June 2019, in turn resulting in significant value creation for shareholders of the company,” the spokeswoman said.
The whole international education “industry” is a giant rent-seeking scam, centred on enriching the middle-men and administrators that sell the dream of work rights and permanent residency to the developing world.
The notion of higher “learning” is a distant priority. The industry is focused purely on higher “earning”.
The federal government must reform the education industry and force it to compete on quality and value alone via:
- Raising entry standards to study at Australian tertiary institutions (particularly English-language proficiency);
- Significantly lifting financial requirements needed to enter Australia; and
- Removing the link between study, work rights and permanent residency.
These reforms would provide significant net benefits to Australia, such as 1) improving student quality; 2) increasing export revenue per student; 3) lowering enrolment numbers to levels commensurate with international norms; and 4) raising teaching standards and improving the experience for domestic students.
The edu-migration industry must be reined-in and standards restored.
