How can university leaders promote innovation and growth in a complex multicultural settings while addressing social change with evolving forms of cultural, social and emotional intelligence?

Professor Ghassan Aouad is a Muslim leader and chancellor of Abu Dhabi University in the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi University is one of the UAE's leading universities, with over 7000 students of 100 different nationalities.

He talks to HEDx's Martin Betts and Professor Christy Collis of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) about his leadership style.

Prior to taking up his role at Abu Dhabi University, Professor Ghassan Aouad worked at universities across the UK and was president of the University of Wollongong's Dubai campus.

Professor Christy Collis is a counselling researcher and higher education specialist. She is the Queensland treasurer of HERDSA, Australasia's peak professional association for higher education research, and Provost at the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors.

The levy, which is effectively a redistributive tax within the university sector, would help fund Education Minister Jason Clare’s plan to boost the numbers of less-privileged students in higher education, including those from low socio-economic status backgrounds and from ­regional and remote areas.

The Universities Accord ­interim report last June urged the government to consider a levy on international students, with the revenue raised used to pay for priorities across the ­higher education sector.

But following warnings from the international education ­industry that a tax on inter­national student fees would be seen as ­targeting international students and turn them away from ­Australia, a more general levy based on other revenue indicators is seen as a better option – ­although the new measure, while designed differently, is still expected to hit the universities, mainly in the Group of Eight, that earn big sums from overseas students.

Latest figures show that, in 2022, the University of Sydney earned $1.4bn from inter­national student fees, Monash University earned $906m, the University of Melbourne earned $877m, the University of NSW $753m, and the University of Queensland $614m.

Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson said that the Go8 universities remained “opposed to any revenue-raising measure that effectively comes on the back of international ­students”.

“Any measure which taxes our general revenue is effectively a backdoor tax on international students. It is unfair, not in the ­national interest and poor public policy.

“It also undermines our hard-won and enduring successes in international education and risks damaging our global reputation,” Ms Thomson said.

“It ignores the fact that this is a quick-fix solution to what is a fundamentally structural issue and that is how do we, as a nation, fund our … research effort.”

She said the Go8 universities invested $7.7bn annually into research and received only $2.8bn from governments.

The Universities Accord final report, produced by an expert panel chaired by former NSW chief scientist Mary O’Kane, is expected to be released by Mr Clare in advance of the Universities Australia annual conference next week in Canberra.

However, until the government releases its response to the report – which will not come immediately – it won’t be clear which accord recommendations it will accept.

The less-wealthy universities, which stand to benefit from the redistributive levy, are also suffering from the federal government’s deliberate slowdown in processing of international student visas as it works to reduce Australia’s net migration levels.

Two weeks ago, 16 universities, mainly those designated by the Home Affairs Department as having higher visa risk levels, wrote to Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil that they stood to lose $310m in international student fees this year unless the department rapidly cleared the backlog of unprocessed student visas.

Last Friday, Ms O’Neil had an online meeting with most of the vice-chancellors who signed the letter but universities say the situation is little improved.

Charles Sturt University said on Tuesday it was still waiting for visas to be processed for half of its new cohort of international students.

James Cook University vice-chancellor Simon Biggs said the government had not yet changed the student visa settings.

In this episode, the vice-chancellor of the UK University of East Anglia, David Maguire, joins UK director of Online Education Services, Andrea Burrows, to give an overview of the current university financial crisis in the UK. 

Universities in the United Kingdom are struggling to afford to enrol their own home students ever since tuition fees were frozen in 2017 at £9,250 a year despite a growing 18-year-old cohort, rising inflation and increasing teaching costs.

Professor Maguire has worked at at eight universities since starting his career, and been vice-chancellor at four since 2017, when tuition fees were frozen.

He suggests one reason a university might fail financially is when its student numbers are falling faster than its competitors, damaging its reputation.

To overcome this, universities need to find a point of differentiation to avoid relying on a perception of prestige. His own university lives by the motto 'do different'.

Professor David Maguire is the vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia in the UK. He has researched and worked in the fields of geographic information systems and higher education policy. The professor was vice-chancellor of the University of Greenwich from 2011 to 2019, interim vice-chancellor of the University of Dundee in 2020 and at the University of Sussex from 2021-2022.

Andrea Burrows is the UK managing director for Online Education Services (OES), an education body that partners with universities across Britain and Europe to create 'student-centric' online learning. She has a professional leadership background in marketing, advertising and digital transformation across higher education, finance and professional service sectors.

Professor Scott, a non-academic who was a newcomer to higher education when appointed to lead the University of Sydney in 2021, is well practised in dealing with government after previous stints as head of the NSW Education Department and managing director of the ABC.

The Go8 will have a source of continuity in chief executive Vicki Thomson, who has been in the role since 2015 and been reappointed for the next five years.

The final report of the government’s Universities Accord review of higher education, to be released late next month, is likely to put a tax on universities’ international student income – which Go8 institutions rely on to fund their research budgets – and also slow-walk calls to boost Australia’s research spending.

Professor Scott said an international student tax would be a “dangerous and short-term policy intervention”.

He said that national research performance – in which the Go8 universities dominate – was a standout area of Australian educational achievement compared to, for example, the poor participation rates for early childhood education or lacklustre school performance.

“So I think it would be very short-term for any government or policymaker to turn around and say, ‘We will target the one area where the country has been doing exceptionally well in global terms’,” Professor Scott said.

“Revenue from international students has provided the investment that has been necessary in research in this country that has come at the same time as government … and business investment in research has been in significant long-term decline.”

He said he understood why the government’s work on the Accord had focused on increasing the number of disadvantaged students who get a university education and ensuring graduates have the skills required for modern jobs.

“But to focus on those things does not take away at all from the importance of research … particularly for the long-term strategic growth of the country,” Professor Scott said.

“We shouldn’t be in a position where we’re sacrificing our strength in one area to make further investments in others.”

In a submission lodged this week to a Senate committee examining a bill making changes to the Australian Research Council, the Go8 urges that 65 per cent of ARC grant funding to universities should be allocated to basic research.

Professor Scott said a commitment to basic research was a necessary foundation for future success. “Unless there is a guaranteed investment in basic research now, there’s nothing to translate and commercialise in five, 10, 15 years from now,” he said.

Professor Scott’s two-year term as Go8 chair takes him up to 2026, when the group will admit the new Adelaide University, a merger of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. Because UniSA does not have a high concentration of research, the newly merged Adelaide University will not, at least for some years, fit the research-intensive profile of Group of Eight members.

The University of Adelaide, a Go8 member, will cease to exist and Professor Scott said the group had debated whether to admit the new Adelaide University.

“We decided we wanted to keep that important university in South Australia in the Go8. I think there’s an expectation that its research performance will improve over time, and that will be a focus,” he said.

The current 81 per cent approval rate is down from 86 per cent in 2022-23, 91.5 per cent in 2021-22, and 89.9 per cent pre-pandemic in 2018-19.

Just over 139,000 overseas student visas have been approved since July 1, which is why this year's migration numbers to drop well below last year's record of 577,295 visas granted.

The lowered approval percentage is part of the federal government's effort to dramatically decrease the number of 'non-genuine' students travelling to Australia, who are more interested in working rather than studying.

For example, students who apply to complete a diploma-level vocational subject are less likely to be admitted than those applying to learn sought-after skills, like those required to work in engineering or technology fields.

A Department of Home Affairs spokeswoman told The Australian visa approvals need to uphold the integrity of the recently shaken-up student visa program.

“The department has seen increasing levels of integrity concerns across the student visa program,” she said.

“The department received higher levels of fraudulent documents, fraud related to English language testing, non-genuine claims and non-genuine subsequent marriages being presented in student visa applications.

“The department will refuse a visa application to non-genuine applicants who do not meet regulatory requirements and where fraud is present.”

The government's restrictions also hope to shift perception of Australia on the international stage as a high-quality education provider.

Highly inflated international student numbers have also been blamed for straining housing availability and government services.

"[Universities] do not want Australia to be known as a country where you come here, you get exploited, you don't get educated properly and frankly the course you signed up on wasn't quite what it looked like," the Minister for Home Affairs Clare O'Neil said.

"So we've got a bit of a repair job to do … the things we are doing are important for that sector. They're generally supported by providers of education and that's because they know we've got to fix this, otherwise it will really go off the rails."

There is a current global trend of limiting student migration, with Canada announcing a two-year cap on foreign students that will cut numbers by 35 per cent, and Britain forbidding its overseas students from bringing dependants with them.

The Catholic university with campuses in Sydney in NSW and Fremantle and Broome in WA has over 11,000 enrolled students and says it offers students a 'unique', personalised and outcome-based education.

Notre Dame deputy vice-chancellor (international and partnerships) Professor Michelle Campbell said OIEG's vast recruitment reach is a positive jump from the university's small international office, which has been a barrier to welcoming a more diverse student population.

OIEG will integrate overseas students into Notre Dame's Fremantle and Sydney campuses through its 2500 total recruitment agents in 50 locations.

"Putting international students and domestic students together in a classroom is an eye-opening experience for all," Professor Campbell said.

"And we do need diversification, particularly in our university. It's only an advantage for the domestic and the international students that do enrol in programmes at Notre Dame."

The university's 2026 strategic plan has five "pillars", one of which is universality, that 'recognises Notre Dame is part of something bigger and deeper than itself.'

The plan explains the university will achieve this through growing its international partnerships, international student presence and research partnerships; and through developing an international component of its core curriculum.

Both parties in the partnership are not concerned about the recently tightened restrictions on international students because Notre Dame is a smaller university that is interested in 'up and coming' areas like Sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia.

"It's likely to have an impact on the [whole] sector ... I don't think it'll be any different to the recruitment that's going on all over the world and with recruitment agents for universities," Professor Campbell explained.

"We'll work with the new rules, but I think both organisations are very experienced in this space and I don't see it as a significant problem at all."

OIEG managing director for Australasia Neil Fitzroy said the migration plan's new rules aren't a worry because the partnership will focus more on creating a positive student experience, rather than hitting short term recruitment targets.

"This is very much becoming an integrated, embedded partnership around ... how we market to international students, how we integrate them and make them feel welcome in their first weeks, months, years, how we look at future programme development," he said.

Notre Dame's ethos is centered around producing students that go on to 'do good for the community', emphasising workplace experiences during study to help its students graduate 'job-ready'.

Professor Campbell said its Catholic values equip staff and management to see students as individuals, not numbers, to better focus on supporting them and their learning.

"Being a smaller university, the class sizes are smaller. The students do feel like they're an individual and they do get the one-on-one support," she said.

"They also are very well-prepared for employment in some of our practise disciplines like nursing and teaching.

"They do more experience hours than other universities in the country, and a lot of students see that as a great advantage, as do employers because they're very much more work ready when they do come to the end of their programmes.

Countries attracting the most Aussie ex-pats – ranked from least expensive living costs and tuition fees – are New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, the US, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Japan, according to an analysis of UNESCO Student Mobility data.

It comes as average student loan debts in Australia have increased from $15,200 to $24,800 in the past decade, with the federal government last year placing a 7.1 per cent increase on outstanding HECS-HELP student loans in the largest bump of the past 30 years.

Increases in the cost of living have also deterred international students from travelling to Australia in favour of subsidised education across Europe, where enrolments were open for the autumn 2024 semester, according to an artificial intelligence platform developed to search and rank studying costs.

Erudera, the European company behind the AI platform, revealed Australia has struggled to return to the pre-pandemic levels for international students due to increasing costs for both tuition and living.

“The higher education landscape includes significant affordable college options that students may not be fully familiar with,” said Erudera's Alma Miftari.

She said lower-cost institutions are being overshadowed by their big-name counterparts.

“However, these lesser-known universities often offer commendable academic programs at significantly lower tuition fees, and studying abroad offers a rich tapestry of benefits that extend well beyond financial considerations.”

For student Stefan Djukic, however, it was Australia’s cost of living rather than the melting pot of experiences that drove him from Sydney to Europe, where he is studying for a masters degree at Belgrade’s Singidunum University.

The 23-year-old had resigned himself to repaying a HECS-HELP loan over 20 years until a chance conversation with a friend led him to Serbia, where tuition fees start at $1655 per year.

“What appealed to me was that there was a much more personalised experience as the classes – all had less than 30 people – and the teachers would go out of their way to help you learn, a luxury that would cost exponentially more in Australia,” Djukic said.

Australia has 13,268 students studying abroad, with the most in English-speaking countries, including the US and UK.

For Australians, Erudera found that free and nominal-fee education can still be found in countries across Europe:

Finland: Tuition from $6626 per year for English-taught degrees, with an average cost of living between $1620 to $2147 per month, including rent. Foreigners can work up to 30 hours per week while studying. Two-year post-grad work visa available.

Germany: Free to minimal tuition with a cost of living between $1722 to $2115 per month. Foreigners can work full-time for 120 days or part-time for 240 half days without a permit. Eighteen-month post-grad work visa available.

Greece: Tuition from $2485 per year with a cost of living of between $1260 to $1482 per month. Work allowed for 20 hours per week during the semester and 40 hours during vacations.

Iceland: Free or minimal tuition but a higher cost of living at between $2267 to $3273 per month. Students can work up to 15 hours per week during the academic year, but a permit is required. Six-month post-grad work visa available.

Luxembourg: Tuition from $1988 for English-taught degrees, or free/minimal for degrees taught in French, German or Luxembourgish. Nine-month post-grad work visa available. The cost of living is between $2342 to $3372 per month, with work allowed for 346 hours during the academic year.

Malta: Tuition from $1789 with a cost of living between $1570 to $2103 per month. All foreign nationals require a permit to work. Six-month post-grad work visa available.

Netherlands: Tuition from $9940 with average cost of living between $1930 to $2726 per month. Work allowed for up to 16 hours per week and full-time during the summer. One-year post-grad work visa available.

Switzerland: Tuition from $662 per year with an average cost of living between $3101 to $4002 per month. International students can work up to 15 hours per week during school term and full-time during summer. Six-month post-grad work visa available.

Tightening rules and creating new visa types for international students is a large part of the immigration overhaul after a record 510,000 overseas students were accepted into tertiary education courses this year.

One of the plan's eight key strategies is "strengthening the integrity and quality of international education".

It commits to a private college shakeup, a stronger English language test and more rigorous standards for visa re-applications to ensure students are coming to Australia to study, not work.

What's changing

Currently, temporary students can 'visa hop' by re-applying for studies or changing their course to gain faster employment and stay in Australia longer whilst doing unskilled work.

The new plan's more comprehensive application process hopes to stop this, instead favouring visa applications from highly skilled workers who will help fix our skills crisis.

Potential 'visa hopper' applicants will be labelled as high-risk students that drive 'permanent temporariness', and their visas will face slower and more complicated processes.

International students are our biggest cohort of 'permanently temporary' migrants, with 108,000 having stayed in Australia for five or more years, with many reapplying to study courses that are easier or less 'in-demand' than their original application.

A 'skills in demand' visa will replace the current 'temporary skills shortage' visa to action the changed processes and outline clearer pathways for migrant students through three sub-categories.

The specialist skills visa pathway will take on highly skilled workers, focusing on the short-staffed technology and green energy industries.

The core skills visa pathway requirements will change with a regularly updated list of occupations Australia needs at any particular time to meet workforce demands.

A yet-to-be-announced essential skills pathway will focus on hiring in labour jobs with worker shortages that offer lower incomes. 

The three pathways feed into another roadmap in the plan that will crack down on misusing the visa system to exploit migrant workers; along with $19m to be invested into a home affairs student visa integrity unit.

Finally, students will be required to pass a more rigorous English language test if they want to study at an Australian university, which the strategy says will also lower the risk of migrant worker exploitation and ensure students are genuinely here to study instead of work.

The International English Language Testing System requires a score of 5.5 from students on visas, but that number will be raised to 6.0, and from 6.0 to 6.5 for students applying for graduate visas.

A crackdown on poor quality education

A 2023 review of Australia's migration system found its processes were 'so badly broken' that a 10-year plan was needed to completely shake up how we accept immigrants.

University bodies have overall accepted the migration plan, although there is some concern that the heavier restrictions might scare international students away from studying at an Australian university.

Chief executive of Universities Australia (UA) Catriona Jackson told Sky News the strategy will 'close loopholes' that do a disservice to Australia and international students.

"These are good changes. International students who are coming here for genuine reasons to study at our world-class universities have nothing to be concerned about," she said.

"This is about getting to students who might not want to be a student – they're actually after a job outcome instead."

Ms Jackson said 'shonky operators' that 'enrol' international students in a university with a high reputation, only to later transfer them to a dodgy institution, need to be stopped.

"I suppose what's of concern here is students who sign up, say for a Bachelor of Science at the Australian National University, or they want to do architecture at the University of Melbourne, they come along and then they're lured by someone to go off and do something quite different," she explained.

"A short course, fairly low value and a skill that Australia's not really all that keen on."

However, the UA chief told ABC NewsRadio students won't see much of a change in terms of the new language requirements, because "Australian universities have higher than the minimum standards already."

Chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia Phil Honeywood also told the ABC he doesn't think the restrictions will affect mainstream university numbers, but more so private colleges.

He also said the $40bn overseas students bring to Australia each year can't be discounted.

"Obviously 40 per cent of public university research and shiny buildings come off the back of international fees," he said.

"However, thankfully, the government have targeted the lower end of the ecosystem, the private colleges where many of them are not providing a quality of education.

"The government focused on the back-end where too many young people are graduating and staying in the country, and not getting course-related employability."

However, chief executive of the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia Troy Williams said the plan is problematic and based on inaccurate data about education quality from a broken visa processing system.

Mr Williams said the new rules could diminish the image of all Australian unis, especially reputable independent education providers.

"The language in the migration strategy is reckless and ignores the high-quality skills training outcomes that the majority of international students in Australia receive," he said.

"The reports of irregularities are not isolated incidents but rather, represent a troubling pattern over a considerable period that requires urgent attention as there is arguably a systematic failure in the student visa processing arrangements that renders the system not fit for purpose."

Minister for Home Affairs Clare O'Neil said in a Monday press conference that the package will instead raise Australia's standing on the international study stage, as other possible reforms loom for overseas students.

"[Universities] do not want Australia to be known as a country where you come here, you get exploited, you don't get educated properly and frankly the course you signed up on wasn't quite what it looked like," the minister said.

"So we've got a bit of a repair job to do … the things we are doing are important for that sector. They're generally supported by providers of education and that's because they know we've got to fix this, otherwise it will really go off the rails."

The union said overseas students are being disproportionately affected by rising food and rent prices and adhering to tight housing and transport rules is making it worse.

International students can only work a maximum of 48 hours a fortnight, unless they work in the aged care sector, and cannot apply for many education-related travel subsidies.

The Union recommends the establishment of migrant worker centres in each state for workplace rights advice, the reconsideration of work hour restrictions on student visas, and an extension of travel subsidies.

Covid-era laws allowed migrant students to work unlimited hours and study remotely, but were canned in July this year.

Unions NSW assistant secretary Thomas Costa said these restrictions can lead to many international students accepting 'substandard' living conditions and being underpaid by employers.

"Our data paints a grim reality of exploitation and hardship among temporary migrant workers, with international students facing the brunt of the housing crisis," Mr Costa said.

"It is high time that educational institutions step up to provide adequate housing, and that the NSW government extends travel concessions to international students, ensuring parity with other students."

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that rent has risen 14 per cent in the year to July 2023 for new tenants, which the Union pointed out overwhelmingly includes overseas students studying in Australia.

"Temporary migrants contributed $29 billion to the Australian economy in 2022," Mr Costa said.

"Yet, they are met with reinstated caps on work hours and a lack of support services. Universities and the government must act to avert a deepening of this crisis."

International student levy

International students could soon also be subject to a tax for coming to learn in Australia, that has potential to bring $1b each year to the tertiary education sector.

The federal government is considering taxing international students to help cut soaring migration numbers, which are also contributing to the nation’s rental crisis.

However, the University of Adelaide (Adelaide) said they fear the potential impost could damage Australia's reputation as a student destination and have a negative economic impact.

An Adelaide spokeswoman said international students brought “enormous benefits” to SA, both "culturally and economically".

"A levy of any kind … will risk the enduring success of the sector, risk our global reputation, and is not in the national interest," she said.

The Australian Universities Accord interim report raised the idea of a levy on international students, which the Group of Eight universities rejected.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said he has not yet received briefings from the federal government about the levy.

"As a state, we’ve made changes to try and grow the number of international students we can accommodate without that being at the expense of domestic education," the Premier said.

"So we would want to make sure any changes that occur federally don’t undermine that."

The Surabaya campus is in Pakuwon Tower, located in central Surabaya, and is in its 'first phase', which includes a built site of 3,000 square metres to house up to 1000 students.

Its second phase will allow the campus to house an additional 700 students, with a final goal of enrolling 2000 students.

The university said it aims to act as an economic hub to meet the rising demand for tertiary educated STEM workers in South East Asia, zeroing-in on 'entrepreneurship, digital skills and sustainability'.

Its immediate courses are all three-year long undergraduate programs and include:

• Bachelor of Computer Science
• Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology
• Bachelor of Data Science
• Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical)
• Bachelor of Business (Applied Finance)

These courses will act as tertiary study to business pipelines, with additional programs to be offered in the future.

Chancellor Professor Jennifer Westacott AO said the campus will provide life-changing opportunities to its students.

"The University’s focus on digital skills and sustainability will support Indonesia’s economic transformation and provide opportunities to extend our network of partners in education and industry," she said.

In his speech at the launch, Education Minister Jason Clare said the new campus will strengthen ties between Australia and Indonesia.

"Prime Minister Albanese wrote a new chapter in [our] story by visiting South Sulawesi as part of his very first bilateral visit [to Indonesia]," the minister said.

"He chose to come to Indonesia because building ties between our two great countries has never been more important. 

"And a big part of that visit was what we’re talking about today. That’s education."

The WSU Launch Pad program will be the initial campus centrepiece. If offers 'start-up founder' programs, designed for students who will then go on to create sustainable and innovative businesses.

Short courses that teach entrepreneurial and commercialisation skills in partnership, and other entrepreneur-focused activities are offered through the Launch Pad program.

Students or those interested in the campus' progress can register to be updated here.