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Gaby Ramia is Professor of Policy and Society at The University of Sydney, where he is Deputy Head of School (Research) in the School of Social and Political Sciences, and a Theme Co-Leader in the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies.

Congratulations on the publication of your new book, International Student Policy in Australia! You have researched social policy for a number of years – what sparked your interest in this particular area?

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Gaby: Thank you! I came to research on international students by accident. I was based at Monash University in the early part of my career in the early to mid-2000s. There was a favourable funding context, as the university had just issued a large call for project funding applications on the broad theme of ‘global movements’. Importantly, this coincided with the beginning of a new phase in my research, which was beginning to branch out from the areas I was trained in. Specifically, I was becoming excited about investigating the global dimensions of issues and categories of people that I had up to then analysed as being within nation-state and nation-‘bound’ terms. If you like, I was really finding myself as a researcher on people whose welfare could not be determined solely in the policy regime of one country. To be honest, up to then I was never attracted to researching international students, because I did not like the idea of researching human subjects who appeared before me in the classroom. It had seemed somehow too easy and not intellectually adventurous enough. But let me assure you that it is a very challenging area, if only because policy studies specialists – especially social policy researchers – are generally very sympathetic but not that interested. Though, having said that, let me emphasise their general support. Nobody is in the way. I do and have published on international students in social policy journals and settings. In fact, part of my research contribution, as I see it, is bringing public and social policy theories and perspectives to the study of international education and the lives of students.

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The book begins with an account of Scott Morrison’s press conference on 3 April 2020, in which he announced that international students would not receive any compensation for the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Do you think this overt disregard for international student welfare shocked or surprised many social policy experts? What about the students themselves?

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Gaby: In a way it did. The exclusion of international students from income compensation in 2020 occurred in a policy environment where a highly conservative government discovered the need for social policies – specifically, ‘universalist’ as opposed to ‘selective’ payment benefits – as the primary means to avoid economic recession while a pandemic was besieging Australia and the rest of the world. It was surprising also because, up to that point, like most researchers in the area, I was convinced that the economics of international education would win the day. That argument states that international students may not choose Australia in the future if they were treated so badly in 2020. In other words, governments would not want to sacrifice the future trade benefits brought about by international student revenues. Otherwise stated again, they would not want to ‘kill the golden goose’. But then, on the other hand, as I argue in the book, the international education ‘market’ for Australia has never seen extended declines in global share. It is a market characterised by ‘resilience’. In fact, the main trend is one of growth. And excluding temporary visa holders like international students from benefits in 2020 was totally consistent with the historical trajectory of national social policy. The thinking behind the Australian welfare state has always been that permanent residents and citizens can receive welfare payments and services if and when they qualify, but ‘foreigners’ never can.

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Australia has long been a popular destination for international students. How did Australia gain this reputation? And how has it changed in recent years?

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Gaby: Full-fee international education was opened up by the Hawke Labor government by the early 1990s. At that stage Australia was not expected to be a global ‘player’, but that status did emerge, as I demonstrate in Chapter 3 of the book. Australia has now long been associated with a positive and relatively accepting and liberal lifestyle and culture. It generally has favourable climatic and other conditions. It is considered safe. It has also become an increasingly competitive economy on the international stage. It is a globally recognised and respected country. Finally, and most importantly, in the last two decades, universities have increasingly relied on international student revenues as a means to fund research, which is a particularly attractive strategy in the face of what has been a lowering of the funding share coming from governments. In the process of increasing the research reputations of our universities, more international students have chosen to come to study in Australia. Our higher education system is generally seen as internationally focused and high-quality, and our universities have been climbing up the global research and quality rankings. The book explores these ‘student choice’ and ‘mobility’ factors further.

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In what ways does the government’s diminishing support for international students reflect public attitudes towards university funding?

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Gaby: As I suggest in my response to the previous question, there is a really close relationship between the research agendas of universities and the attraction of international students to Australia. Universities therefore obviously want and increasingly need international students. The Australian public, on the other hand, has become a little bit warier of universities because of their corporatisation. Indeed there is some data which suggests that universities are less respected national institutions than they once were. There are also some in the wider community who, in addition to questioning universities’ motivations as hosts for international students, also question whether we should be accepting so many international students. Let me be clear, though, that international students do not displace domestic students. Both student cohorts are being encouraged to study in larger numbers and are generally courted by governments. The current international student caps proposal is the only exception to that erstwhile rule. Finally, international students do not crowd out domestic students or other members of the community from housing, and the economic benefits of them being here far outweigh any effects they may (or may not) have on inflation and the cost of living. Any anti-international student sentiment is bad for Australia.

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What advice would you give international students who are interested in pursuing higher education in Australia?

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Gaby: The main piece of advice is please do come and study in Australia. As a lecturer I can say that international students enrich the classroom I stand in, and they do that beyond measure. As I say in the preface, it is to absolutely nobody’s benefit if international students do not come here. If they do not come, international students lose by missing out on a high-quality education and new life-experiences in a beautiful country. The domestic economy and governments miss out on the benefits of international education as an export. Educational providers at all levels miss out on the broader benefits of internationalising curricula and their campus and classroom cultures. And Australian society certainly misses out on the opportunities that come with a more global Australia. I hope we always have international students in large numbers in Australia.

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International Student Policy in Australia: The welfare dimension is available now. Order your copyÌýhere.