Australian visa fees ‘paying for domestic reforms’ – minister

Canberra is using visa fees extracted from would-be international students to bankroll improvements for their domestic peers, a Sydney conference has heard.

Education minister Jason Clare said that while the visa fee hikes had not been “terribly popular” in the sector, they had helped fund reforms recommended by the Australian Universities Accord.

“Whilst we don’t strictly hypothecate the money, when you make the argument to colleagues about funding for the system, you’ve got to find ways to do it,” Clare told the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit. “How do you think we’re funding the accord?”

Australia earned around A$583 million (£306 million) from the application fees of the foreign students who were awarded visas last financial year, and another A$157 million from those who were rejected. Since then, the fees have risen a further 25 per cent.

“Whether it’s extra [subsidised university places] to meet the growing demand, or whether it’s paid prac, or whether it’s the billion dollars that we’re putting into extra bridging courses to help young people that aren’t ready to start a degree…all of those things are helped by that sort of investment,” Clare said.

The minister, who is currently navigating contentious university funding legislation through parliament, said he expected the bill to pass with changes. “We made 36 amendments to the Atec [Australian Tertiary Education Commission] bill based on feedback from people in this room,” he told the summit. “I imagine that we’ll do the same with this bill as well.”

He flagged potential amendments to ministerial discretion provisions, to “future proof” the legislation against governments tempted to “use some of the powers in this bill for the wrong reasons”.

The overhaul will deliver up to A$500 million in extra funding for regional Charles Sturt University over the next decade, and up to A$260 million for Central Queensland University, Clare said. He predicted that the National Party – the junior member of the opposition coalition, with a primarily regional constituency – would inevitably vote in favour of the bill, forcing its Liberal Party partner to follow suit.

But Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil said it would be very difficult for “the kind of university the government wants” – one with substantial domestic undergraduate enrolments, “respectable” research and a high proportion of disadvantaged students – to “work financially” in the proposed system.

Sheil said proposed penalties for “over-enrolments” would be counter-productive. “Capping us is not going to create more places,” she told the summit. “For us it feels a little bit like managed non-growth rather than managed growth.”

Atec chief commissioner Barney Glover said his agency’s forecasting indicated “fairly strong” demand for university next year. Atec was working to generate the evidence Clare needed to justify extra funding to accommodate more disadvantaged students, under the “demand-driven equity” mechanism.

Glover said Atec had negotiated mission-based compacts with 21 of Australia’s 42 universities, with the entire suite expected to be finalised in September. “We are very deeply involved with universities about how to set commensal load targets for next year, so that they feel confident and comfortable they have the resources they need.”

Clare said separate legislation to be introduced in the next few months would give the regulator, Teqsa, “better tools to do its job”. Compliance with the higher education standards framework would become a condition of registration, with Teqsa empowered to fine institutions that breached the threshold standards.

The regulator would be able to impose civil penalties of over A$2 million, up from about A$40,000 now. The bill would also amend the Australian National University (ANU) Act to require equal numbers of elected and ministerially appointed members on the institution’s governing council, among other changes.

The government has released a consultation paper on the proposed tweaks to ANU’s governance. It comes a day after the university named former public servant Gordon de Brouwer as its next chancellor, commencing in the role on 19 August. 

Atec has also released former Deakin University deputy vice-chancellor Liz Johnson’s report on professionalism in university teaching. Its six recommendations include inserting a new standard around teaching practice in the higher education standards framework. Atec is establishing a working group to consider the recommendations. 

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com