Australian Universities hit hard by slump in foreign students

A slump in the number of international students coming to Australia is causing major problems for universities reliant on full-fee-paying students.

The latest Federal Government figures show a 1.4 per cent decline in enrolments since this time last year for a sector that has grown almost 11 per cent a year for the past eight years.

International students make up about a quarter of all university enrolments in Australia, so any reduction in intake has a serious impact on the bottom line.

Monash University is Australia's largest university and has more international students than any other.

Vice-chancellor Professor Ed Byrne says enrolments in English language courses at Monash College are down 30 per cent.

With half of those students typically migrating to full-fee-paying university places, that is a substantial loss of income.

"For next year, we're about $40 million on the income side away from where we'd hoped to be," he said.

Monash has just approved 359 redundancies to improve its budget forecast for next year.

Jennie Lang is pro-vice-chancellor international at the University of New South Wales. She says the decline in student numbers is worrying.

"In some instances, the downturn will initially be small and will be handled on the margins. In other universities it will be catastrophic," she said.

China is Australia's biggest market for international students, with India a close second.

Government data shows Indian student enrolments are down 17 per cent on this time last year.

The high Australian dollar has increased competition from the US and UK, but Ms Lang says recent changes to immigration rules are also to blame.

"There's been really significant problems about the messages we used in the election campaign to do with migration and whether or not Australia wants to grow its population," she said.

"That's been interpreted in our major source countries in Asia as Australia now sort of moving away from having international students and migrants."

'Perceived racism'

Ms Lang says there is also a perception that Australia is not as welcoming as it could be to international students.

"We've been picking that up in a number of countries that we've been visiting this year," she said.

Spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, Gautam Gupta, agrees with the assessment.

"I think everything plays a role. High Australian dollar obviously contributes, as for migration laws again, definitely a reason," he said.

"The biggest problem is the lack of confidence in the Australian Government and the lack of ability to stem the increasing violence."

Professor Byrne agrees perceived racism against Indian students has had an impact.

"We have a really good idea of this because of interviews with students and with our many agents throughout Asia," he said.

"So in South Asia, initially there were cultural safety factors as perceived in India. Now they've been addressed very vigorously by the Federal Government and by the university sector.

"I think cultural safety and a mutual understanding is being built up. It will take a few years to completely get over that hiccup but we'll get there.

"The Indian market was also very migration-focused and the new migration criteria I think have affected that market also."

But Professor Byrne is hopeful the downturn is not indicative of a long-term trend and that enrolment numbers from all overseas markets will have improved by 2013.

"I don't think there is going to be a decline in the long run," he said.

"Remember that the number of people who live in families that can afford university education privately in Asia is predicted to grow from something like 300 million today to over 1.4 billion in 10 years' time.

"The current international student market from Asia, especially China, is growing at more than 30 per cent a year and I think that's predicted to continue into the future.

"So this market is going to grow internationally for many, many years."

Source: ABC news by Anna Hipsley