Overseas student caps endorsed by Australian Senate committee

A Senate committee has endorsed legislation to cap overseas enrolments in Australia’s tertiary institutions, saying international education “must be managed”.

In a report published on 9 October, the Education and Employment Legislation Committee recommended relatively minor changes to the bill, including removal of the education minister’s power to set course-level caps at universities and public vocational training colleges.

The committee also said the minister should be required to give at least six months’ notice of changes to any institution’s quota, up from the three months outlined in the bill, and to consult more broadly before setting the caps.

Other recommendations included amending the legislation “to exempt specific classes of students” from the caps. The government has already announced exemptions.

Senators from the opposition Liberal Party offered no additional suggestions, despite blasting the cap scheme’s “incompetence, secrecy, uncertainty and unfairness”.

Only cross-bench senators offered alternative recommendations. The Australian Greens said the legislation should not be passed unless parts authorising enrolment caps were removed. Mechanisms to improve integrity in international education, which make up most of the bill, were widely supported.

The Greens also said the government should withdraw and rewrite the legislation, immediately revoke ministerial direction 107 and increase university funding.

The most substantial amendment proposals came from independent senator David Pocock, who recommended 11 additional changes to the enrolment cap provisions.

They included delaying the caps by a year, easing the penalty provisions, requiring a mechanism for independent reviews and mandating a “workable system for reallocating unused places”.

Mr Pocock also advocated “legislated criteria” for setting the caps, with tighter parliamentary oversight. And he recommended a “floor” of at least 85 per cent of the previous year’s cap to give institutions “a minimum level of certainty to plan their budgets”.

Such proposals appear unlikely to pass the Senate, with both major parties mostly supporting the bill’s current provisions. The main question now is not whether it will pass but when, with just nine further Senate sitting days this year.

The committee’s Labor chair, Tony Sheldon, issued a statement pressuring the opposition parties to pass the legislation quickly. “It’s time [for] the Liberals and Nationals [to] stop delaying and get on board,” it said.

“The opposition couldn’t come up with a single recommendation for how they think the bill should be improved. The Liberals and Nationals complained that the caps were too harsh, while at the same time promising to cut numbers even further. The sector needs to return to sustainable levels of international enrolments.”

The committee’s majority report “acknowledges the concerns” over the caps but says the Education Department is continuing consultation with the sector. It notes that education minister Jason Clare will “consider” transferring “certain powers” to the Australian Tertiary Education Commission “when established” and has committed to replacing ministerial direction “subject to the passage of this bill”.

“The important measures in this bill are the next steps in strengthening Australia’s international education sector,” the majority report says.

The opposition senators said the government’s “chaotic approach to policy making” had disproportionately harmed small universities and private colleges. “Student caps favour Australia’s most prestigious universities…it is clear the government has looked after the big end of town.”

Australian National University policy analyst Andrew Norton tweeted that the committee had accepted that “course caps make no sense”, but nevertheless decided they should apply to private colleges. Professor Norton said the majority report recommendations had “probably been agreed to by the minister”. 

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com