International students show our statecraft missing in action

Yet when it comes to international education, statecraft has been missing in action.

Since the 1950s and the era of the Colombo Plan, which funded scholarships for students from across our region, education has been a key source of soft power for Australia in our region.

Students coming to learn here have developed deep personal connections with Australia and added to the development of skills and knowledge in their home countries.

The alumni of Australian education institutions include former presidents of Singapore, a current deputy prime minister of Laos, and a former vice president of Indonesia.

Any Australian businessperson or official travelling to a country such as Malaysia will regularly interact with alumni of Australian universities, now working in senior positions in the government or private sector.

These connections – a hidden superpower for Australia – are at risk with the government’s sweeping and abrupt new changes to international education.

On one level, the government is right to address very real problems with the sector.

Low-quality courses targeting fee-paying international students, and a lack of affordable housing, mean that too often, international students do not have a good time in Australia.

Evidence that the Morrison government’s removal of limits on international students’ working hours in 2022 incentivised economic migrants to undertake study as a migration pathway is concerning.

Ultimately, the root cause of many of these problems is the perverse incentives created for universities who rely heavily on international student fees as a source of revenue.

Unfortunately, the Albanese government has chosen to lead with a narrative led by domestic politics.

These problems are among several reasons why Australia has become a relatively less popular destination for students from South-East Asia over the past 10 years or so, especially for top achievers from middle income countries.

Making sure international students enjoy their time in Australia (referred to euphemistically as “the quality of student experience”) has fallen through the policy cracks under successive governments.

Consider this: Australian embassies overseas now devote extensive resources to maintaining connections with alumni, hosting gala dinners and other major events in their honour.

But no government agency is tasked or resourced to ensure that these students are connected to and welcomed in Australia in the first place.

At times, failing to recognise the foreign policy dimension of international education has even led to disaster.

In 2009, student safety concerns saw education become a point of tension in the Australia-India relationship.

Concerns in 2019 about foreign interference on Australian university campuses also showed a failure to proactively anticipate and manage the challenges associated with hosting large student cohorts from countries without the same democratic political values as our own.

And during the COVID-19 pandemic, then prime minister Scott Morrison’s statement that international students should “go home” damaged international perceptions of Australia as a welcoming place.

So reform, that emphasises the quality of Australia’s education offering and provides a consistent narrative that Australia is a welcoming, friendly and safe destination, is sorely needed.

Unfortunately, the Albanese government has chosen to lead with a narrative led by domestic politics, linking international student numbers to net migration levels and housing affordability for Australians.

As education leaders have pointed out, this will inevitably lead some prospective students to conclude that they are not welcome in Australia, with a flow on effect to Australia’s biggest non-resource export industry.

Just as importantly, these measures may also be toxic for Australian soft power in its own region.

As recently as last month, Australia’s high commissioner to India was reassuring Indians that, unlike other countries, Australia had not put a cap on student numbers.

Less than three weeks later, Australia announced it would limit international enrolments at Australian universities.

The Albanese government has made it clear that it wants to step up its contribution to the region.

Yet Australia is not a powerhouse of overseas investment like China or Japan. Nor does it have the civilisational or pop culture influence of India or South Korea.

This means we must work with the tools we have, such as education, to remain relevant to the countries of our region.

Australia’s traditional market competitors, the United Kingdom and Canada, are also cracking down on student visas.

This will comfort those who see education only as a revenue stream. But from a strategic perspective, this should actually concern Canberra, as it may mean that over time, non-traditional destinations in North-East Asia, including China, become more attractive to students from South-East Asia and beyond.

So, abruptly changing policy is risking not only our reliability as a partner but also potentially creating a longer-term strategic risk.

Jason Clare recently said that it wasn’t lost on him that international education “makes us friends because a student who comes here gets a degree and then goes home”. Australia should not take this friendship for granted.