Both sides of Australian politics have undermined the opportunity to build a major offshore education industry serving some of the country’s closest neighbours, according to former vocational education minister and Liberal Party heavyweight Andrew Robb.
Robb told a Sydney forum that the tightening of visa policy from 2023, fuelled by concerns about housing availability, had torpedoed a promising transnational education venture he had helped launch.
The New Edge Education Group, which Robb serves as “ambassador”, had teamed up with a Vietnamese college to deliver Australian curricula in construction and several other vocational disciplines. Some 4,000 Vietnamese students had enrolled, and similar programmes had been launched in India and Indonesia.
While the venture covered its costs on the fees paid by locals, its financial viability depended on commissions earned by bringing some of the top-performing students to Australia as sponsored skilled migrants. The scheme was designed to address both South-east Asia’s need for skills training and Australia’s need for skilled workers, Robb told the Australia China Business Council’s international education forum on 9 June.
Of some 300 students who wanted to come to Australia, just one was denied a visa. But when the exercise was repeated, just 2 per cent received visas. The treatment of highly skilled Australian-trained workers had changed “overnight”, Robb said. “The whole programme fell on its head, and 4,000 students got cut off.”
