Private higher education providers which offer unique pathways into skilled employment risk being gutted by Labor’s reckless application of international student caps.
Shadow Minister for Education, Sarah Henderson, said at a time when Australian businesses are desperate for critical skills, the Albanese Government’s attempt to clean up its immigration mess had resulted in chaos for the very providers which prepare students for the workforce.
“Jason Clare’s scheme is riddled with incompetence, uncertainty and unfairness,” Senator Henderson said.
“He has left private educators and a number of universities in the lurch which compromises critical skill shortages including in teaching and nursing.”
Senator Henderson said the Coalition had demanded a further senate hearing into the student cap legislation in Sydney on Friday where it will urge the minister’s department to come clean on the proposed caps at each institution and other vital information about the operation of the scheme.
In one case, she said a newly registered private higher education provider focused on electric vehicle manufacturing, which had invested millions of dollars and met every regulatory requirement, has been given no international student allocation for 2025.
Universities like Western Sydney University, which delivers more than 1,000 foreign nursing graduates each year who go on to work in local hospitals, has been severely undermined by its allocation.
Meanwhile, the Group of Eight universities with significant higher levels of international students are getting off relatively scot-free.
“While capping international student numbers is part of the Coalition’s policy to reduce housing pressures, Jason Clare’s arbitrary and covert student caps has plummeted much of the higher education sector into turmoil,” Senator Henderson said.
“Jason Clare has made an absolute mess of international student caps.
“It is no wonder Australians are losing so much faith in the Albanese Government.”