A levy on universities income from international student fees was floated in the Universities Accord. Christopher Ziguras (Uni Melbourne) and Gwilym Croucher (Uni Melbourne) address the issues, in a new analysis for the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education.
Who would pay: International students is who. “It will be a difficult task to explain to international students why they should be paying fees that will be transferred to support other universities in which they will not be studying.”
Providers who are taxed on earnings could also complain about a second slug.
A transfer not a tax: “What is being proposed here is not for universities to provide a percentage of their income to public revenue, instead what is being proposed is to redistribute students’ fees from the providers in which they chose to study to other providers that have fewer full-fee paying students.
“Calls for redistribution necessarily rely on the principle that those institutions with higher levels of fee income have an obligation to fund those with less fee income.”
How much in the pot: If 5 per cent was levied on all international student fee income, Uni Sydney would be slugged $67m, Monash U $45m, Uni Melbourne $42m, UNSW $35m and Uni Queensland $32m.
To spend on what: In August Education Minister Jason Clare suggested a levy could work, “like a sovereign wealth fund, that could do multiple things, like protect the sector from future economic shocks, and help fund things like infrastructure, research or student housing.” Ziguras and Croucher suggest that market volatility should be left to institutions to address.
The losers are: Internationals who “already contribute significantly to the public purse: The authors estimate international students and graduates on PSWR visas contribute $2.6bn to the Commonwealth in visa fees, income tax and GST.
But most unis would win: The authors state if the fund was split evenly among 40 universities 29 would be better off.
And yet: “despite this, very little support for the levy has been forthcoming from any quarters”..
