Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2011 and the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Registration Charges Consequentials) Bill 2011 are noncontroversial, the policy settings for the regulation of the provision of educational services for overseas students is, of course, anything but noncontroversial. Honourable senators would be well aware that international education is one of Australia's major export industries.

This is not a widely known fact and, sadly, it does not attract the attention from parliament and from the community that it deserves. While we in this place constantly debate the carbon tax, the mining super profits tax, boat people and so forth, and debate rages about those matters, there is very little debate about education and international education. The fate of education exports seems to be something that only a few insiders are excited about. I am excited about it, Senator Rhiannon is excited by it, but not enough people are excited by it. But what is at stake is the international competitiveness of industries which contribute tens of billions of dollars to our economy, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and provide for innumerable other direct and indirect benefits for our country, among them being a great diplomatic effect that international education has for this country and its relations particularly with East Asia.

I was saddened to read yesterday the latest ABS figures, which showed that in the 2010-11 financial year international education dropped by almost 10 per cent in value from $18 billion in 2009-10 to only $16.4 billion last financial year. That drop—over $1½ billion in export industries—is a big drop and a lot of money. Sadly, it was not surprising. Our education sector has been sounding the alarm for quite some time as it has been battered by a perfect storm of the high Australian dollar and by some damage to our reputation both in safety and standards in some of our higher education facilities. Yet for all this, Australia still hosts and educates the third-largest number of international tertiary students in the world, after the United States and the United Kingdom. Per capita, we educate more international students than any nation on earth and we do it very, very well.

With the proportion of international to domestic tertiary students at more than three times the OECD average, Australia clearly remains a destination of choice for international students. It remains so today, but we cannot take that for granted. With that in mind, the opposition eagerly awaits the outcome of the Knight review into student visas, as well as the government's response to the Knight review. This will, hopefully, allow for fine tuning of policy parameters to strike the right balance between the integrity of our migration system and the openness of our education sector. In the meantime, the coalition will support the bills before the parliament as they seek to address the issue of standards and quality in Australia's international education services.

These bills will create a new fee structure for higher education providers who wish to be registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students. Registration on CRICOS allows higher education providers to offer courses to overseas students. If they are not on the list then they cannot offer courses to overseas students. This implements recom­mendations arising from the review of the education services for overseas students legislative framework, titled Stronger, simpler, smarter ESOS: supporting inter­national studentsthe ESOS review—conducted by the Hon. Bruce Baird, a former Liberal Party minister.

The new base fee, the compliance history fee, charge per student enrolment and charge per registered course are designed to cover the administrative costs of the registration process and reflect the size of any associated supervision, compliance or enforcement activity needed to ensure that only reputable providers are permitted to operate. I commend these bills to the Senate and hope and wish that honourable senators pay much attention to overseas education.

Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2011 and the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Registration Charges Consequentials) Bill 2011. In 2010 overseas full-fee paying students contributed $18.5 billion in export income to the Australian economy. That is certainly an impressive number and, to listen to Senator Mason, it sounds like he gets excited by these figures.

Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do.

Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge that. Education services is our largest services export industry and every sector of education, from secondary schools to English language intensive courses for overseas students, from VET to the higher education sector, benefits from the enrich­ment and diversity international students bring. They provide an important social capital for Australia, whether they stay to keep directly contributing to our country's prosperity and wellbeing or whether they return home, providing a bridge for us to connect with our region and with the rest of the world. As Professor Glyn Davis, Vice Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, noted in a 2009 article in the Campus Review, education is a:

… barometer of our relationship with Asia…and an indirect measure of Australia's reputation internationally.

and

… strong education flows reflect wider flows in ideas, people and trade.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Melbourne Institute Asialink Index 2009—a multi indicator measure of engagement between Australia and Asia—confirms that:

International education and conference attendance correlates with tourism and migration in the short term and investment and trade statistics in the years to come.

With the violent attacks on Indian students during 2009, and the many tragedies that occurred there, Australia's reputation as a safe and inclusive country for overseas students was severely damaged, as we know. Claims of disregard for the quality of education available in Australia for inter­national students quickly followed. Evidence of education agents misleading students about their courses and work opportunities surfaced. And unethical providers linking education with migration outcomes led to a growth in students willing or misled into looking for a smooth pathway to permanent residency.

It is important to make clear that these series of events were not indicative of the excellent quality of experience provided by the large majority of our education providers, with Australian Education International's International Student Survey 2010 Overview Report confirming generally high levels of satisfaction with their Australian education experience. However, as we know, there was a series of events that revealed a certain neglect by Australian governments to properly oversee the care of those young people outlaying substantial costs to receive a quality education by Australian providers.

This bill before us, and its consequential bill, implements some of the recom­mendations of the 2010 education services for overseas students review by adopting a risk assessment and management approach to the registration and monitoring of education providers who deliver courses to international students. It also seeks to improve processes, ensuring the accountability of international education and payable by all Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, registered providers of courses to overseas students, with a new fee structure: the annual registration charge. This is made up of a base fee, a charge per student enrolment, a charge per registered course and the risk profile of the providers. Providers routinely offering courses of less than 13 weeks may count those enrolments as a quarter of an enrolment charge, where currently they count as half a charge for courses less than 26 weeks.

Low-risk providers, such as those with an established history of quality provision, will pay less, with the majority of our education providers to pay less than the existing charges. Higher risk providers or those with a history of non-compliance will pay more—with fairness provisions allowing the oppor­tunity for those providers to appeal prior to being charged higher charges. The charge is designed to recoup the administrative costs of the registration process and the extent of supervision, compliance or enforcement activity needed to ensure that only reputable providers are permitted to operate.

The entry to market charge replaces the current initial registration charge payable by education providers seeking their first CRICOS registration and those whose registration has been cancelled or expired. It is higher than the previous charges and is payable for each of the first three years of CRICOS registration, diminishing in cost over those three years. Exemptions from these charges are allowed through regulation for certain providers with low-risk profiles and quality controlled processes, such as established universities and TAFEs. Overall there will be a reduction of about $81 million in costs to the sector as a whole, with most existing international providers seeing their annual registration charge reduced.

There are still issues that need to be addressed, however, to ensure international students in Australia receive the education and training for which they have paid and a quality experience in all aspects of their time here. Lower quality services relating to standards of accommodation and careers advice still need to be addressed, and, as for most Australian students, the cost of living for students is a struggle. Their housing, their cost of living and their transport needs have to be addressed.

The Greens support these bills, as part of a suite of legislation that provides greater care and responsibility in looking after students, by adopting a risk assessment of providers in the registration process.

Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Rhiannon has just indicated, the hundreds and thousands of international students that study in Australia—from India, from China, from Thailand, from Korea, from the United States and from Indonesia, to name just a few—come to Australia on study visas and have a huge beneficial impact on our economy. They are here to learn and they also make a huge difference in terms of the number of jobs they create. I think there is unanimity in this chamber about the beneficial effects of the overseas student sector on this nation's economy. I know that, in my home state of South Australia—in Adelaide in particular—overseas students are a critical part of the fabric of our tertiary education sector. Whether it is for higher education, vocational education and training, secondary school or English language sectors, these individuals pay tens of thousands in tuition fees, in visas, in travel costs and in rent, and in other costs associated with their studies.

The ESOS is designed to ensure financial and tuition assurance to overseas for course for which they paid, to protect and enhance Australia's reputation for quality education and training services and to complement Australia's migration laws by ensuring the collection and reporting of information relevant to the administration of the law relating to student visas. However, a number of closures of international education schools—12 schools in 2009—has resulted in a loss of confidence amongst some international students in Australia as a destination of choice, and that is something that we must reverse; it is something that we must address. We all read stories about schools closing without notice—in some cases it was literally open one day and closed the next. Students had no idea what had happened. They were ready to turn up to learn, only to find the doors locked and the school shut. That is what spurred the Baird Review of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000, which recom­mended stronger regulations to better protect Australia's reputation as a provider of quality education. I moved an amendment to the 2009 ESOS bill, supported by the Australian Greens. I foreshadow that, although I will not seek to divide on it, I will be moving a similar amendment today, because it needs to be acknowledged that when an overseas student moves to Australia to study they incur significant costs, such as travel costs, rent and fees associated with organising visas.

Under the amendment that has been circulated in my name, the minister will have the power to regulate for certain consequential costs to be accounted for by the provider and thereby the ESOS Assurance Fund in the same way as tuition fees currently are. I must emphasise that this is about giving the minister the power to regulate. I find it extraordinary, going on what has occurred previously, that the government and the opposition have not seen fit to support this approach. The ESOS Assurance Fund was established in 2000 to protect the interests of current and intending overseas students. I believe this amendment will help those international students who spend or plan to spend tens of thousands of dollars to come to Australia to feel assured that, in the unlikely event that their provider closes, they will not be disadvantaged.

I will speak to the amendment during the committee stage, when I will have more to say about it. I think it is absolutely critical that we acknowledge that international student numbers are down. Of course, there are a number of factors in this: the fallout from the GFC and the all-too-high Australian dollar. But this risk of provider collapses is also a factor, and it is a factor that we in this parliament have the power to address. That is why it is important that this amendment be seriously considered. I support the measures under the bill, but I think we need to think seriously about how we plan to rebuild our international student market. The amendment I will be moving is one way of strengthening the bill and of strengthening our international student market in this nation.

Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I thank those senators who have contributed cooperatively to this debate in the non-controversial session of the consideration of the Education Services for Overseas Students legislation. I commend the legislation to the Senate, and I understand Senator Xenophon will move an amendment. I think the debate has been well canvassed. I do not intend to add to the second reading debate in terms of the legislation, but I will make a few confined remarks in the committee stage. Thank you.

Question agreed to.

Bills read a second time.