New minister has something to prove

Until last week, he presided over the portfolio that kept Australia safe from international students. Now he’s presiding over a sector that isn’t safe without them. Reporting to a minister who safeguarded the nation’s borders from, among other things, dubious international students, is an incongruity not lost on the higher education sector. Asked what new tertiary education boss Chris Evans should tackle first, observers pointed to the student visa troubles the minister oversaw in his previous job as immigration minister. “It’s one of life’s little ironies, I suppose,” said Professor Paul Rodan, director of the International Education Research Centre at CQUniversity Melbourne. “This perhaps is an immediate challenge for Chris Evans, to make clear from his background that he knows various issues and problems were addressed, and he now has the portfolio that’s living with the consequences of some of those decisions.” Fearing a collapse in the nation’s international student market, University of Melbourne higher education expert Professor Simon Marginson continued his warnings about restrictive student visa requirements. “We need [Evans] to talk to his old immigration department about the visa application process and the regulations governing visas,” Marginson said. “Especially the financial requirements, which are unreasonable, too high. This is choking off the supply of students.” Professor Dean Forbes, deputy vice-chancellor (international and communities) at Flinders University, agreed. “Ironically, visa issues should be high on his priorities, although they’re no longer his direct responsibility,” Forbes said. “He will need to look at the issue of student visas from an entirely different perspective and listen to the messages the universities are sending. “We did not oppose some tightening of visa arrangements. However, the current changes have gone too far.” While forming government last week, the ALP responded to a collective outcry by universities and industry bodies about the symbolic omission of the sector, by hastily tacking a “tertiary education” label to Evans’ new portfolio of jobs, skills and workplace relations. Evans then went on the defensive, highlighting the ALP’s spending record as evidence that the party’s commitment to higher education had never faltered. He also indicated the split in departmental duties (Evans has “tertiary education”, Kim Carr keeps “research”) further signalled the new Gillard government’s dedication. “The reality is we’ve added an additional cabinet minister to the portfolio to try and drive the huge agenda we’ve got in this area,” he told ABC Radio National last week. “I think people should be celebrating the fact that the government’s got, as a priority, education.” But not everyone was buying it. “Sounds like spin to me. But there will be a couple of tests of that,” said Rodan. Forbes said it was hard to see the logic of spreading tertiary education and research over three ministerial portfolios, including the minister for trade who is responsible for the international marketing of education. “Strengthening our international reputation in education requires a sharp message and delivery [and] broad ranging international collaborations and partnerships. “Surely that would be better facilitated through a leaner structure.” Perhaps emboldened by how quickly they had won back a minister, others in the sector took the opportunity to apply deeper pressure, too. The International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) urged the new government to meet with peak bodies to address the “looming crisis” in international education. “Onshore and offshore visa grants to international students fell by more than 50,000, or 16 per cent, to 30 June 2010,” IEAA president Stephen Connelly said in a statement. “If this trend continues, we will fall to below 500,000 students by the end of 2011, down from 630,000 at the end of 2009. “This means 35,000 jobs across the country will be lost, and worse can be expected for 2012.” Evans had inherited that dilemma too, said Rodan, because jobs and tertiary education had dovetailed into his new portfolio. “The immediate question to Chris Evans is, what are you going to do about the 35,000 job losses?” he said. The sector knows it has its part to play in maintaining a robust market, and other commentators said a wait-and-see approach toward the new minister was only fair. “I think the government’s actually done well in developing a vision for higher education, coming from the Bradley review and it’s response to that,” said Claire Field, acting CEO of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training. “We’d like to see more of the Bradley reforms rolled out and that’s certainly something we’ll be looking to engage with the minister on.” Still, there’s an expectation on the new minister to show he understands the value of international education, particularly, by outlining a vision. “I think the media or the opposition or someone has to fairly early in his tenure ask him to articulate where he sees international education fitting in,” said Rodan. “I don’t just mean in a budget sense, I mean in the context of its role in a modern education sector that projects Australia to the world and is welcoming to those who can make a contribution.”