Australian National University vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt wants limit on international students

‘There’s a limit to how many we can take’: Top university vice-chancellor calls on Australia to slash the 900,000 foreign students allowed into the country

  • Australian National National vice-chancellor wants international student limit
  • Professor Brian Schmidt says over-reliance on foreigners was bad for quality
  • Nobel-prize winning academic worried about university research suffering
  • Education exports are worth more than $30billion a year to Australian economy 

A vice-chancellor from one of Australia’s most prestigious universities has called for fewer international students to be accepted.

Education is Australia’s third biggest export, and is worth more than $30billion a year to the economy with almost 900,000 foreigners studying in Australia last year.

Universities make money from teaching more students, and fee-paying overseas students have been lucrative for the higher education sector. 

A Nobel-prize winning vice-chancellor from one of Australia’s most prestigious universities has called for fewer international students to be accepted (Chinese students at ANU pictured)

Australian National University vice-chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt, who won a Nobel prize in physics in 2011, said there was a danger in accepting too many international students.

‘Yes, international students are great but there is a limit to how many we can take and we must be getting close to that,’ the Canberra-based academic told The Australian Financial Review newspaper.

‘We are going to have to be selective.’

Professor Schmidt, an American-born astrophysicist, said the over-reliance on international students, to boost enrolments, was a threat to the quality of university research. 

Australian National University vice-chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt, who won a Nobel prize in physics in 2011, said there was a danger in accepting too many international students

Australian National University vice-chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt, who won a Nobel prize in physics in 2011, said there was a danger in accepting too many international students

‘We need to continue as a teaching and a research university,’ he said.

Foreign students in Australia

China is the number one source of international students in Australia, with their academic presence generating $10billion for the economy in 2017.

That was almost triple the $3.4billion generated by Indian nationals studying in Australia.

Students from Malaysia, Nepal, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Brazil rounded out the top 10 list.

Foreigners were more likely to study in Sydney or Melbourne, with New South Wales and Victoria generating more than two-thirds of the $30billion in export income from education.

Source: Department of Education and Training. 

‘But I don’t get better if I get bigger.’

In 2017, education exports generated $30.8billion for the Australian economy, with Chinese student demand making up a third of that, data from the Department of Education and Training showed. 

This grew to $32.4billion in the 2017/18 financial year, when the first six months of last year were taken into account. 

The number of international students continued to surge last year, jumping from 800,000 to almost 900,000. 

Students from India, Malaysia, Nepal and Vietnam made the top five list.  

In November federal Education Minister Dan Tehan, who represents an electorate in western Victoria, told the Council for International Education more work needed to be done to attract more international students to regional areas.

‘International education is Australia’s third highest value export, contributing $32.4 billion to the Australian economy in 2017-18 and supporting over 240,000 Australian jobs,’ he said.

In 2017, education exports generated $30.8billion for the Australian economy, with Chinese student demand making up a third of that, federal government data showed

In 2017, education exports generated $30.8billion for the Australian economy, with Chinese student demand making up a third of that, federal government data showed

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