Lin Thorp (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

And that is not a bad word, actually. Students were coming in and being housed in substandard accommodation and paying quite high course fees for no real discernible educational outcome at the end of it. That is not what it was all about. There was even some concern at the time that the kinds of courses that these students were doing did not even match the educational needs of their country of origin or what was happening here in Australia. So this review was significant and timely. The review received 150 formal submissions and more than 300 people registered with the online discussion forums. All of that input was considered, including recommendations from the International Student Roundtable, which was held in September 2009.

There were some very significant concerns raised during that consultation period. These included reports of false and misleading information being provided by some education agents. Members may or may not be aware that quite a lot of the work done in matching a student in China or India, for example, with a course in a country like Australia requires the services of an educational agent, and they have a big responsibility. There are large sums of money involved for a student to come from China, for example, to Australia to study any course, whether it be something at pre-tertiary level or right through to masters and high-level degrees like engineering. Usually—perhaps all the time—these are full-fee-paying students and that is a huge financial impost on their families. Not only that, they have to move from one side of the world to the other. Parents need to know that their children are going to be safe. It is not just what happens in the classroom that is important. It is important that they have a well-rounded educational experience, which also means being able to, in many cases, take on part-time work and join in community activities, which, as I said earlier, does a lot to enhance Australia's cultural richness.

Amongst those concerns were reports of false and misleading information being provided by education agents and poor quality education and training. During our review we noted that students were sometimes arriving at the wrong time in our educational school calendar. For example, the school year here in Australia, whether it be for high school, pre-tertiary college level or a tertiary institution, usually goes from January or February through to before Christmas, but that does not naturally match up with the school times in other countries. So we sometimes had students arriving in September when the school year was nearly at an end and moving into the assessment period, often having January and February unoccupied and then they only having a couple of months to go before their school year was up. It did not fit the cycle, so they were not being treated as well as they should have been.

Lack of appropriate educational facilities was another concern. We all expect high-quality education facilities in Australia. When they are provided through state-owned institutions, or even independent private schools, they are usually of a high standard, but some of the ones I saw during the review conducted by the Legislative Council of Tasmania were far from adequate in my opinion and in the opinion of my colleagues at the time.

Providers paying exorbitant fees and commissions to these education agents was another concern. It is not a culture we are used to in Australia, but in other cultures it is very commonplace. For even something as simple as going to register your car, you do not go directly to the department or institution involved, you employ an intermediary or an agent. If that intermediary or agent does not have the highest of ethical standards, one can well imagine the potential corruption that could occur.

Low English language entry requirements were another concern. Whilst there may be education language requirements going into, say, a first year university degree in any of our universities, that kind of requirement does not necessarily apply elsewhere. We can have a situation where a student with very poor English goes into a course and, if the institution they are enrolled in does not take sufficient care to make sure those English language skills are raised to a sufficient level, that poor student has absolutely no possibility of being able to interpret and access the course materials.

As I also mentioned earlier, there is poor social inclusion of students in their institutions and the broader community. How lonely could that be—to come to a foreign country to be enrolled in a course and then find that not only is the course poor but your accommodation is poor and you are socially isolated, with no access to part-time work or other activities? That is a very negative experience for that student whilst it is happening and they will take that back to their home country. It is certainly not a great advertisement for one of the best and biggest economic industries we have in this country.

There were other issues raised during the review that were not necessarily part of its scope. They included alleged workplace exploitation, migration and visa issues, deficient and expensive student accommodation, lack of transport concessions and health matters. Concerns around student safety and racism were rarely raised in the student forums. That might come as a bit of a surprise to us who were around when some issues were raised in the media but, even though that was not raised in the student forums, that was of concern amongst the participants.

Mr Baird noted that support for international education in Australia has been and remains strong. There was an acknowledgement of Australia's longstanding reputation for quality education and training; that the majority of the providers were doing the right thing; that ESOS had sound regulatory frameworks; and that international students are, by and large, satisfied with their Australian educational experience. Of the contributors to that review, individuals and organisations alike offered valuable practical suggestions to deal with the issues facing the sector. These included how to improve educational quality; tighten registration; create stronger, simpler and smarter regulation; inform and support student choices; and enhance the whole student experience. ESOS can and does play a major role in achieving these objectives.

He made specific recommendations within the report about how the legislative framework could be amended. Of course the legislation in front of us today represents yet another of the recommendations that came from the Baird review. The recommendations themselves are of considerable interest, I am sure, to all who are present. However, the recommendations we are looking at today in the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment Bill come back to quite a specific area, and that is what can happen when a student has paid their tuition fees and there is a problem and they need to have those moneys refunded in some shape or form. This bill amends division 2 of the current act, prepaid fees, particularly sections 27, 28 and 29. It will change the headings, subtitles and definitions of 'fees' and 'tuition fees' so that it becomes possible for the student to be fully recompensed should any untoward act occur. On that level I am very pleased to be able to support the legislation in front of us today.