There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody.
– Adlai Stevenson
MARGIN OF ERROR. From THE, 19 December 2024
Despite the expensive fees that they pay, Australian universities are barely profiting off international students because they are spending so much money on recruiting them. Consultancy Nous Group says Australia recruits almost twice the share of international students through agents and pays commissions that are up to twice as high as other major destinations – leaving them barely half the tuition fee for a foreign student’s first year. Nous’ global head of higher education, Zac Ashkanasy, tells my colleague John Ross that universities are “probably only just breaking even” and losing money in high-infrastructure courses such as health or engineering. Meanwhile, separate figures reveal that higher education attracted the lion’s share of the A$51 billion (£26 billion) the country earned from “education-related travel” in 2023-24. Analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data show that this was up from about A$36 billion the previous year as a result of record growth of study visas in late 2023 – before the Australian government’s crackdown. Chief executive Luke Sheehy says the ABS figures reflect earlier conditions, when “pent-up demand, delayed starts and higher living expenses” were still driving up growth.
The pointed, fair, and realistic criticism is at the end of the blog (right at the end, below).
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Neville Buch
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