James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Education Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No. 2) Bill 2021. I would like to start by acknowledging that it has been a tough 12 months or more for the tertiary education sector, and, in my home state of South Australia, for the three universities there: The University of Adelaide, my alma mater, the University of South Australia and Flinders University. I've been staying very close to the leadership of all three of those institutions, meeting regularly with the vice-chancellors. I had the honour of addressing one of the graduation ceremonies at Adelaide university a few weeks ago.

It has been a difficult 12 months, and the outlook is still concerning insofar as the international student market is concerned. That market is a significant part of most tertiary institutions' financial models in this country, and has been for many decades. There are critics of that. I don't happen to be one of them. I'm a strong supporter of the international student sector. Not just because, as an industry, it's an export earner—that's a happy economic outcome from engaging in that sector—but because it is excellent for the institutions and for the financial viability of them. They have the ability to invest more than they otherwise would in important research activities because of the scale that has been created by international students, and the fact that these students meet the entirety of the cost of their own studies and contribute into the funds available for our institutions to invest in research activities and the like.

Obviously, with international borders closed, this has created a lot of stress for our institutions. In the first few months of COVID, there was an ability to hold things together as far as holding out hope that international students would return soon. It is now clear that will not occur, but I do hope that institutions are working through contingencies to make sure that, once we can safely bring international students back into this country, they're ready to take full advantage of that. I would hate to see the sector significantly deteriorate because of the challenges of COVID, and not see the sector bounce back as quickly as possible. Engaging in attracting foreign students, at their full cost, to come and study in this country again is important, and provides a benefit for those institutions, particularly in the ability to finance a lot of significant research capability in this country.

There are broader economic benefits that come from the international student sector, and some of my colleagues, in contributing to this debate, have already made some of those points. It's not just the tuition fees and the benefit of those tuition fees for those institutions; it's clearly the broader expenditure that those international students undertake in the economies that they're engaged in. In my home city of Adelaide, it has been a significant sector for a long time. If I reflect on when I was an undergraduate, and also in my post-graduate studies—particularly in my post-graduate studies—the vast majority of my cohort were international students. I suspect that the course I undertook wouldn't have been provided by Adelaide university if they didn't have the international student cohort participating in it. If it hadn't been available to me, I would have missed the opportunity to make excellent friendships with people. Some are still in this country, some have gone back to significant careers in the countries from which they came. I would not only have lost that engagement but I would also probably have paid a lot more for my qualification, because it wouldn't have been supported by the contribution of international students.

Some of the important elements that we're addressing here go to that, particularly the humanitarian side. I think that we can all accept that this reform is important, in many ways, to address some loopholes. I won't go through the fundamental detail of what has already been canvassed by previous speakers in that regard, but it is important that we address this. The principle of supporting those who are here on a humanitarian basis is important. We always intended to support them with FEE-HELP, so it's important that they still receive that support and aren't disadvantaged by way of a loophole. That's what we're addressing here, as well as some of the other important things related to international students and to Indigenous languages.

One of the silver linings in the 14 months since the COVID pandemic struck us in so many ways, particularly the higher education sector, is that we've had to refocus on the importance of sovereign capability and, within that, how important it will be for our higher education institutions to engage with government and the private sector as part of the innovation agenda to restore fundamental sovereign manufacturing capability here in this country. Since the budget last year and some of the manufacturing investments that we'd already committed to as a government, I've had the opportunity to go to a number of collaborations between our higher education institutions in my home state of South Australia and a wide array of industry sectors, which have a very bright future because of the partnerships that are in place between the higher education sector, the Commonwealth government and industry.

I'm excited about the further rounds of funding that have already been announced—but the projects themselves haven't been confirmed—around the collaborative research centres. I'm very passionate about one in particular, which the Adelaide university has put forward, but I'll wait for the merit based process of decision-making to find out, hopefully, that there's good news in regard to that project. But, of course, in the defence sector, in the space sector, in the cybersector and in the satellite sector, there are so many excellent partnerships now being entered into between the tertiary education sector, the Commonwealth government and the private sector. That's a great trinity of hope for future job creation in this country, addressing not just the challenges we've got but the opportunities as well. It's the higher education sector that's vital for that, and the important amendments that this bill puts forward will continue to support the strength of that sector.

As I said earlier, I hope to see the international student market revived as soon as possible, because it makes a very significant contribution towards the research capacity of the higher education institutions. I know that, like every other higher education institution, it will benefit the three in my home state of South Australia—Adelaide university, Flinders University and the University of South Australia. I look forward to continuing to work with them on the other important undertakings that we've made in the recent budget and previous budgets to support them and work with them to make sure we're using them to enhance, expand and maximise the benefits of future industry development in this country.

See this speech in context