Last year, former regulator for the vocational training sector, Claire Field, warned that South Asian students were arriving in Australia in large numbers in “response to the unlimited work rights now available to those on Australian student visas”, with these students “enrolling in lower quality and cheaper vocational colleges” in order to enter Australia to work and live.
Claire Field also questioned a $10 million incentive program introduced by the West Australian government in early May 2022, claiming it would encourage visa fraud by financially rewarding education agents that direct international students to the state.
As a result, agents would be incentivised to lower standards and engage in fraud in an attempt to enrol as many students as possible for maximum financial gain, Field warned.
Curiously, Western Australian taxpayers are also providing $6.75 million in subsidies to international students to help them with their accommodation and ELICOS course fees.
The International Student Accommodation Subsidy is a $1,500 payment to eligible international students to offset their accommodation expenses while studying full-time.
Likewise, the International Student ELICOS Bursary is a $1,500 payment to eligible international students to offset their fees when undertaking an approved English Language Intensive Course for Overseas Students (ELICOS).
International student groups claim the taxpayer subsidies are not enough given the lack of rental accommodation across the state.
Indian Curtin student and international students committee president, Bharaath Kathiravan, who lives in accommodation provided by the university, says that he spends much of his time as president trying to reduce the stress of the rental market for foreign students.
He says the rental problem would not be fixed by financial aid but by an increase in housing stock for students.
“People might have money but even with money they can’t find accommodation”, said Kathiravan.
The bigger questions is: why is the Western Australian Government throwing taxpayer dollars at international students when there are many domestic students doing it tough, especially with respect to finding rental accommodation?
Shouldn’t Australian taxpayer dollars be spent on Australian citizens and permanent residents, not foreign nationals?
Moreover, why is the Western Australian Government deliberately trying to lift international student numbers when there is a chronic shortage of rental accommodation across Perth?
Doing so will only exacerbate the rental crisis and push more Western Australians into rental stress and homelessness.
The whole international education “industry” has become a farce centred around immigration not education, and quantity over quality.
