Populist Australian political parties have vowed to tighten the rules around international education, in a bid to break universities’ “addiction” to “easy” money from overseas students.
One Nation said foreign students should be banned from obtaining bridging visas or appealing unfavourable visa decisions if they abandoned their courses prematurely. Meanwhile, the United Australia Party (UAP) has vowed to limit international student numbers to 50,000 a year – down from over 600,000 now – as part of an education policy that would also review mandatory vaccination policies and ban gender or race quotas in student admissions.
“Universities have prostituted themselves by filling higher education with foreign students, at the expense of Australian students,” said UAP’s chairman, Clive Palmer. “Consequently, we have a shortage of skilled professionals.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who earned top billing as preferred prime minister in a 14 June opinion poll, said universities must be “forced to prioritise education for Australians” and “broken of their addiction to foreign students. Many of these people are occupying homes and accessing services that should be for Australians first.”
Hanson blamed fake students for driving temporary visa holder numbers to record levels. Foreigners with “no intention to study and every intention of abusing the system” quickly dropped out of their courses and obtained bridging visas – which typically gave them around 200 days’ leeway to work and “access housing and services” – while applying to study at “bogus schools or courses”.
