According to Swinburne University of Technology Vice-Chancellor Pascale Quester “random and ill-advised government decisions” have undermined Australia’s reputation as an international student destination and threaten national progress “as a knowledge driven economy.”
In a speech to an export education audience, Professor Quester warned “restrictive policies” are “deterring the talented international students who are vital to securing Australia’s economic and technological future.”
It follows her attack last year on the Government’s now abandoned plan to allocate quotas of international students by university, widely criticised as opaque in construction and inconsistent in application. At the time Professor Quester called it “black-box decision making” encouraging “cartel-like behaviour by some universities.”
In her recent address, to the International Education Association of Australia, she also warned that “hastily crafted policies that satisfy short term political objectives and inflict long term damage to our national ambition” have “slammed the door” on the international students who are needed to fill the nation’s STEM skills gap. The economy will need 650 000 extra tech workers by 2030, “good luck trying to upskill that many or convince that many year 12 students…It is simply not going to happen!” she said.
“What is happening is damaging to Australia’s long-term economic and technological future at worst. But more importantly, it is depriving our country of its best chance to access the talent we so desperately need to pivot from an economy that just digs things out of the ground to one that is tech savvy, entrepreneurial and part of the knowledge economy.”
