Group of Eight Executive Director Rebukes Immigration Minister for Lack of  Adequate Response for International Student Decline. (September 9, 2010)

A media release yesterday by the Minister for Immigration, Senator Chris Evans, in responding to concerns raised by the Group of Eight Universities, said that despite a decline in applications in recent months, Australia remained an attractive education provider for many international students, and contrary to concerns expressed by the Group of Eight Universities, Australia's student program remains uncapped and student visas are not included in the nation's permanent migration program numbers.

The Minister stated further:

Students are only granted temporary visas to study in Australia and the Gillard Government remains committed to maintaining this as an uncapped program. Labor inherited a student program which failed to adequately detect fraudulent applications and lacked the necessary safeguards to ensure student visa holders were genuine and had sufficient financial support. This was one of the factors which led to the unsustainable explosion in student numbers. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, are now dealing with the same problem and are looking to follow Australia's example by tightening immigration controls. We also introduced reforms to encourage higher numbers of postgraduate research students by streamlining the application process. Labor will continue to monitor the impact of these reforms and work collaboratively with education providers to further streamline administrative processes while maintaining the integrity of the system.

The changes also remove incentives for international students to seek permanent residence through low quality education courses, a practice that damaged the integrity of both the migration program and the education industry.

The Gillard Government is committed to a sustainable, high-quality international education sector and values the contribution it makes to the Australian economy.

Senator Evans media release provoked an immediate and exasperated response from Michael Gallagher, the Group of Eight's executive director.

On the one hand the government wants to shut the door on immigrants which it believes will not contribute usefully to the nation's economy. One the other Mr Gallagher, representing the Group of Eight, sees the immediate prospect of a widening financial gulf for the universities because of reduced international fees which public funding will not be made available to alleviate.

But if the already large reliance for funding from international students increases, there is an increasing likelihood that the fabric of our universities, and their contribution to the commonweal will be corrupted -- some would say further corrupted.

It is a serious and chronic problem which, Bradley Review or no, is not being dealt with adequately.