Vice-Chancellor's statement to Senate Committee hearing

Professor Scott’s opening address is below.

“This is vitally important legislation. It goes centrally to the quality of education provided in Australian universities for international and domestic students. It goes to the strength of a sector that is an engine room of the Australian economy. And to the remarkable opportunities, through soft power and public diplomacy, of educating the next generation of regional leaders.

“International students are currently tracking to make up just about 50 percent of the total student number at the University of Sydney this semester. In Semester 2, international student enrolments will be 2.4 percent higher than in Semester 1. We always have an increase in the second semester as it is peak enrolment time for students from the northern hemisphere.

“When I started at the University in 2021, I saw that its governing body, the Senate, had considered the matter carefully and felt around 50 percent represented a ceiling for international students we should enrol despite continuing robust demand and remarkable affirmation of our programs across the region. Our era of solid growth in international students was drawing to a close.

“Great global universities are, almost by definition, international universities. UK universities like Oxford, Imperial and UCL have around the same percentage of international students as Sydney. The famed London School of Economics, higher still.

“At Sydney, for some years now, we have not planned to move further beyond where we are now.

“We are now focused on more nuanced settings. When considering the optimised student mix, what is far more relevant is the percentage of international students at an undergraduate and postgraduate level, the mix of disciplines, considerations around the country of origin, and the quality of candidates. These are all matters we are working intently on.

“The Accord report demonstrated conclusively that the funding mechanisms for both teaching and research at Australian universities are fundamentally broken and totally inadequate. They represent a profound failure in public policy over recent decades. International students have helped meet these entrenched chronic funding gaps: for the betterment of Australian students – meeting the full cost of courses like medicine and dentistry, providing infrastructure for all to use, and allowing Australia to have a quality system of R&D, despite embarrassingly low levels of government and industry R&D expenditure compared to OECD standards.

“The flow of international students has helped create one of the finest higher education systems in the world despite its challenges.

“Powers in this bill could put that at risk – not just to educational cost but to very significant economic cost.

“The economic analysis looks clear. For every two international students we stop coming to the country, we could expect to see one domestic job lost.

“We have already seen the market spooked by the highly arbitrary implementation of Ministerial Directive 107 and the hike in non-refundable visa application fees.

“Treasury commentary suggests the additional powers sought in this bill are not required to meet migration targets.

“It is rare for there to be such important legislation on a vital national resource, the long-term impact on Australian higher education, with such clear implications for the strength of our economy and our international reputation.

“The unprecedented, sweeping powers sought in this legislation loom as an extraordinary act of self-harm to the Australian economy and one of our most vibrant and successful export industries.”