AUSTRALIA: Uncertain times ahead for universities

Higher education institutions will be looking forward this year with increasing uncertainty to 2012 when a previously untried system of open enrolments begins. The government will then lift restrictions on enrolment numbers and universities will be able to accept however many students they believe they can cope with. Which is not to say this year does not present its own numerous challenges, with declining numbers of full-fee paying foreigners near the top of the list of concerns.

But smaller universities are already fearful of the effects of the new open enrolment scheme with the bigger metropolitan institutions taking an even larger share of talented school leavers and receiving federal grants for each while their smaller cousins face falling enrolments. They also expect declining revenues from foreign fees with student numbers from China and India particularly falling rapidly.

Last year, a decline in the number of foreign students occurred for the first time after rising by 11% a year for the previous eight years. Responding to mounting university concern, the government announced it would set up a review to investigate ways of countering the ongoing decline.

Education Minister Chris Evans said the Australian international education sector has come under increasing pressure because of the rising value of the Australian dollar, the ongoing impact of the global financial crisis in some countries and growing competition from the US, New Zealand and Canada for international students.

But observers believe the main factor was the government's decision early last year to tighten the rules that allowed students completing courses here to gain permanent residency by eliminating many of the courses that enabled students to apply for residency and to emphasise English language competency among the skills applicants needed.

A startling 150,000 students are said to have applied for permanent residency but face rejection as a result of the tighter immigration rules. The Australian newspaper last week revealed the Department of Immigration had warned that many of students felt aggrieved and had started to mobilise. Students protested in Sydney in June and more protests could follow as students were forced to return home when special temporary visas began expiring from next August.

The paper said Robert Atcheson, President of the Council of International Students Australia, was lobbying the government to exempt 455,000 students who had already started their courses when the changes were announced in February.

Under amendments to its skilled migration programme, the government decided to give priority to employer-sponsored applicants and more than halved the number of occupations said to be in demand. The government said at the time it announced the changes that they were intended to better link immigration to labour demand whereas the previous policy had encouraged the proliferation of "dodgy" colleges selling courses largely for migration rather than education.

Although the government provides students with an 18-month temporary visa to allow them time to get work experience and secure sponsorship, Atcheson said for many students it was "an 18-month road to a dead end".

Meantime, vice-chancellors are still waiting to see a draft of legislation to establish a new education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.

TEQSA, as it is already known, is planned to begin as a quality assurance agency from 1 July and as a full regulator of post-secondary education institutions from 1 January 1 next year.

There was widespread alarm last November after the government held confidential talks on the draft legislation and details were leaked to the media. The subsequent outcry forced the government to delay finalising the legislation concerns were raised about the punitive powers of the regulator and threats to university autonomy.

A meeting with senior university figures last week seems to have eased many concerns along with advice from the acting chair of the agency, Professor Denise Bradley, that several projects would be initiated to clarify how TEQSA would operate "with a risk-based, proportionate approach using threshold standards".

All projects would produce papers for widespread discussion in the higher education sector, Bradley said. The standards to be developed would be in partnership with the sector.

geoff.maslen@uw-news.com