ߣߣ��Ƶ has vastly underestimated the proportion of international students who remain in the country long term, according to an advisory body that wants courses rejigged to improve foreign graduates’ employability in the local labour market.

But the representative group for international education says most overseas students eventually leave, and offerings should be designed around their needs.

A from Jobs and Skills ߣߣ��Ƶ (JSA) has found that up to 40 per cent of foreigners who began studying in ߣߣ��Ƶ last decade had obtained permanent residency within 10 years.

This is much higher than a widely cited estimate that 16 per cent of international students eventually transition to permanent residence, contained in a 2018 by the Treasury and the Department of Home Affairs (DHA).

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JSA also found that many overseas graduates were trapped in low-paid jobs in areas they had not trained for – partly because they had specialised in areas of low demand in ߣߣ��Ƶ, and partly because their English language competency was perceived as inadequate.

The report also found that international vocational education and training (VET) graduates were more likely to have jobs and incomes “aligned with their qualifications” than their peers with higher education credentials.

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JSA says post-study work visas should be reconfigured to usher VET students into “areas of persistent national skills shortage”, like cooking.

Overseas graduates should also earn extra migration points for accruing eight or more years of “relevant” work experience, and their English skills should be assessed more frequently and assiduously, the report says.

Universities and colleges should also be incentivised to make work-integrated learning and increased English proficiency “a core element of study offerings”, to increase the employability of their overseas graduates.

JSA’s deputy commissioner, Trevor Gauld, said the “barriers” to foreign graduates’ participation in the local labour market presented a “missed opportunity” for ߣߣ��Ƶn businesses.  

“While the overall value of international students becoming permanent residents is huge, more than half of international graduates are employed below their skill level and earning less than their ߣߣ��Ƶn-born counterparts,” he said. 

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The CEO of the International Education Association of ߣߣ��Ƶ, Phil Honeywood, said foreign students’ demands did not necessarily mesh with ߣߣ��Ƶ’s skills needs. Universities and colleges were unlikely to “drink the Kool-Aid of skills-focussed course design”, he warned.

“The report highlights that the vast majority of our overseas students still return home,” Honeywood said. “We overlook our neighbours’ different skills needs at our recruitment peril.”

He said the report’s emphasis on VET was “curious” at a time when the government was “making it ever more difficult” to obtain visas for vocational study.

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The latest DHA figures suggest that VET visa applications take around five times as long to process as higher education applications, and are about seven times as likely to be rejected.

Last year’s Education Services for Overseas Students amendment bill, if it had passed, would have empowered the education minister to limit international enrolments in courses that provided “limited value” to ߣߣ��Ƶ’s skills and training needs. Monash University higher education expert Andrew Norton said this was an “absurd” idea.

“Most of these students go home,” Norton said. “ߣߣ��Ƶn skills needs are not relevant to them. This kind of reflects the mindset in Canberra that is very focused on what ߣߣ��Ƶn employers are looking for.”

JSA estimates that 35-40 per cent of students who commenced ߣߣ��Ƶn courses in the early 2010s went on to achieve permanent residency. That proportion is likely to have declined to about 25-30 per cent of people who started their studies in the late 2010s, partly because of changes in Chinese students’ behaviour.

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The JSA estimates are based on an analysis of DHA student visa figures and information in the , an ߣߣ��Ƶn Bureau of Statistics dataset that tracks factors including income, taxation, employment and population.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com