Deputy Greens Leader and Higher Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has responded to the Group of Eight’s scathing criticism of the Government’s plan to cap international students, stating that Labor should listen to the sector and dump the bill.
Senator Faruqi:
“It’s good to see the Group of Eight join the growing list of critics slamming the Government for making policy decisions based on an entirely false and divisive conflation of international students and the housing crisis.
“Labor’s international student cap bill is an audacious attack on fundamental principles of student choice and university independence, and it’s no wonder the plan is attracting so much opposition within the higher education sector.
“The bill is a blatant power grab, giving the Education Minister an unprecedented, dangerous level of ministerial discretion over universities.
“Governments should not be micromanaging students or universities.
“This politically driven approach to higher education compromises the study needs of international students and will be terrible for Australia’s reputation as a place to study.
“After years of sustained underfunding of universities by both Labor and Coalition Governments, the bill will make things worse and risk thousands of jobs during a cost of living crisis.
“Capping international student numbers under the guise of easing pressure on the rental market is not just a dishonest, dog whistling conflation, it is bad policy that will do nothing to fix our broken housing system or higher education system”.