The Internationalization of Australian Higher Education

Abstract

Australia’s involvement in international education has undergone several significant policy shifts since World War II. From 1950 onwards, Australia provided significant number of foreign aid‐related scholarships to selected “sponsored” students from needy “developing countries” as part of the Colombo Plan. In 1974, the federal Labor government simultaneously “took over” the total funding bill for higher education (relieving the states of their roughly 50 percent share) and abolished tuition fees. This free tuition also extended to foreign overseas students. The number of foreign students grew rapidly, and the federal higher education budget expanded in the 1970s. A decision was taken in 1979 to introduce a tuition fee for private (i.e., non-governmentsponsored) overseas students—the Overseas Student Charge—constituting one-third of the actual costs. The roughly 10,000 foreign students in this category—mostly from Asia—were viewed as being “subsidized” by the foreign aid budget. Despite some outrage from Australian academics, foreign students and their governments at this “comodification of education,” most universities saw little option but to engage in the pursuit of revenue through competitive marketing and student recruitment programs in Asia. As Australia’s international trade balance seriously deteriorated in the early 1980s, the federal government’s attitude hardened and like the United Kingdom, it introduced a full fee-paying overseas student policy—Australia had effectively shifted from a traditional “aid” to a “trade” perspective in relation to foreign students. The federal minister for education encouraged “cash-strapped” universities to charge a “profit margin” on foreign student tuition to generate revenue. Despite some outrage from Australian academics, foreign students and their governments at this “comodification of education,” most universities saw little option but to engage in the pursuit of revenue through competitive marketing and student recruitment programs in Asia. The result has been spectacular growth in international student enrollments.