Last month, members of staff and students at Western Sydney University (WSU) held a meeting and formed a grassroots committee. Their main objective was to resist the ongoing job cuts and campus reorganization happening at WSU College and the larger university sector. At present, approximately 14,000 positions are being eliminated in Australia’s public universities, and there’s an imminent threat of further cuts. The administration, led by Albanese, has significantly reduced the influx of international students and immigrants, positioning them as the cause of the escalating housing crisis that’s unfavorably affecting working-class families.
There’s an ongoing systematic reduction in both university job positions and employee benefits, coupled with a noticeable decline in the quality of courses and research offered. A testament to the crumbling state of affairs at universities is the fact that enrollment of international students in Australian universities has been slashed. Luke Sheehy, representative of Universities Australia, noted in a recent Senate committee inquiry, that sensationally, 60,000 less student visas had been given out compared to the previous year. This has directly led to a job loss of over 14,000 university positions.
The federal government has not hesitated in bringing the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill to action, even before it’s officially enacted. This pivotal bill would set unprecedented limits on international student admissions. Among the measures taken are a steep increase in student visa application fees from $710 to $1,600. Furthermore, visa processing has become slow, leaving an estimated 50% of international students unable to commence their studies for the semester which began last month.
Additional rules have also been enforced. These include stricter English language qualifications and ‘genuine student’ assessments, as well as precautions to prevent students from residing in the country post their course completion. If the bill becomes law, the government is speculated to set a maximum of 40% of total enrollments for international students, an issue that would affect many Australian universities. In fact, 10 among 39 public universities are already on verge of crossing this proposed limit.
In association with this, there would be an implementation of a cap which would take into account the student numbers in 2019, a year when the overall student count was roughly 109,000 or 16%, lower than the 780,100 international students recorded in Australia in 2024. However, the government’s efforts to attribute the surge in housing rentals and costs to overseas students lacks credibility. The root cause of the housing crisis lies in the series of 13 mortgage interest rate increases, sponsored by the government, coupled with the decline of public housing over the past four decades.
International students have been painted as scapegoats for the housing issue, even though they constitute only about 4% of the rental market. However, Education Minister Jason Clare has kept up the pressure by implying there will be constraints for every educational institution that enrols an international student, once the proposed legislation comes into effect.
Despite resistance from university authorities and business groups, the government’s stance remains firm. They perceive this as a significant threat considering international students contribute close to $50 billion to the economy annually. This emphasis on international students essentially sprung up when the Rudd and Gillard Labor administrations introduced a competitive education market from 2007 to 2013, transforming universities into financial entities.
The motive behind the government’s persistent efforts is multifaceted. One angle is to use this situation to deflect nationwide dissatisfaction regarding increasing financial strain on the working class and deteriorating living conditions. By attributing these hardships to immigrants, the government is aiming to reduce net overseas migration significantly. Their plan is to decrease it to 235,000 per annum for the next three years which would mean drastic cuts to student arrivals.
This approach aligns with several other capitalist governments across the globe, who are shutting their borders to refugees and immigrants. Such actions mirror the xenophobic rhetoric often promoted by far-right political parties. A secondary reason pertains to increased pressure on already underfunded universities to evolve in accordance with the Albanese government’s pro-corporate Universities Accord blueprint. This bill could potentially empower the government to halt international enrollments and/or courses.
At WSU, the recently created WSU Rank-and-File Committee is tackling a plan to restructure WSU College, which could result in the loss of nearly 18 jobs. Should these changes take effect, they could set a precedent across the tertiary education sector. The primary campus trade union – the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) – has been taking measures to halt the grassroots campaign across WSU and other universities.
Unfortunately, the NTEU has been aiding the restructuring at WSU College by agreeing to encourage educators to apply for redundancy packages, and by not defending non-NTEU members. The majority of the college’s educators are not NTEU members due to a lack of trust in the union’s administration. This distrust arises from the NTEU’s record of stifling educators’ opposition to the rising corporatization of universities.
Despite the rhetoric, the NTEU supports the Universities Accord and places the blame for job cuts on university leaders instead of the government. The union is lobbying its members to petition the government to implement stages for any caps on international student enrollments, ostensibly to ensure no job losses occur. This gives further weight to the need for the formation of independent rank-and-file committees throughout the education system, in order to safeguard jobs and conditions while opposing the deeply regressive agenda of the Labor government.