Hardly a surprising view from a vested interest in the education sector.

One Nigerian medical student wishing to return to Nigeria does no necessarily represent the intentions of the majority of overseas students.

And the interests of universities in securing a funding stream to make up the short fall in government funding are not necessarily aligned with the wider interests of Australian society. I.E. Universities are well funded but generate a stream of first home buyers that push up property prices and the cost of living in general.

Sounds a lot like you are saying we should re-open all the visa factories so that you don't lose your job, Bradley. This logic doesn't lend itself very well to your claim that this is a complex multi-dimensional issue that has been reduced to simple pandering to public unease and crude statistics. You've also broken that rule by simplifying the "crude statistics" regarding the $13.7 billion added to the economy. What are the costs in infrastructure, congestion and pollution? Seems like there are some multi-dimensional aspects that need to be covered.

My understanding is that nothing has changed that would reduce the number of Nigerian doctors coming to Australia, the rules have changed to stop people getting hairdressing credentials and then applying for permanent residence. If Australian university education is good enough, then foreign students will continue to come. Nothing has changed about that. The thing that has changed is the visa factories.

If there ever was a long term policy issue it is immigration. Everything about it needs to be considered very carefully for the long term prosperity of Australia and the rest of the world.

A pretty sound recitation of the problems facing the tertiary education sector.

Here are some more:

37 universities teaching much the same stuff
The shoddy treatment of internationals through 'template thinking'
The inability of OZ unis to differentiate themselves in the global education market
The relatively poor research rankings of 75 percent of Oz unis
A ridiculous narcissim by some of the older staff who confuse rights with privilege.
Putting all of their eggs in the international student basket.

So more places available for Australian's and less taxi drivers?

Cheryl,

Your first point is an interesting and extremely relevant one.

When I went to uni to become a teacher, I lived in Brisbane. I had a choice of:

The University of Queensland
Queensland University of Technology
Griffith University: Mt Gravatt
Griffith University: Logan
Griffith University: Gold Coast

When I studied law, my options were as numerous. What that means is that our quality educators are spread rather thinly across five or more comprehensive institutions in one city, rather than being focused in one or two top quality law schools. Now, we don't want a situation where our 17 year-olds have to relocate to Sydney or Melbourne to study (I know they have such a situation in the US, but university education there is somewhat more elitist as a result), but we certainly don't need five mediocre courses when one or two good programs would suffice.

One solution - and one that would be very unpopular with the university sector - is to push universities into specialisation. They all do it to a limited degree, but the reality is that the bulk of undergraduates experience very similar learning wherever they go. Five teaching courses in one city have resulted in OP cutoffs around the 17-20 mark in some courses: you can fail high school and still study to teach there.

The Melbourne College of Divinity (say what you will about it) is pushing to become a small-scale specialist university, and is a leader in its field not only in Australia, but on the international scene as well. Maybe other universities should follow?

Of course, regional universities like JCU, CQU, UNE and others may well continue to be comprehensive institutions to cater for the needs of their communities. I suspect that to do so would make it rather hard for them to compete in terms of quality, though.

Why are there never any problems any more. There are only crises.