Anyone who has tried to find a house near a university knows how difficult it is to secure a suitable place. Not only you are competing with professionals working in the city, you are also competing with many students — including international students and their parents.
Last year, when I was looking for a house for my young family that would be walking distance from the University of Sydney, I had moments of despair. And when you are in despair, it is easy to see things in a simplistic manner. It was therefore tempting to blame students for my situation. But instead of letting my despair get the best of me, I decided to adopt a more nuanced take on the situation. Yes, international students increase demand for housing where I wanted to live, but they also make it possible for me to work at a world-class university.
It is hard not to see the federal government’s proposal to cap the number of international students as a similar act of despair. After all, international students make it possible for Australia to have many of the best universities in the world, despite low levels of public investment in the sector.
Which government in their right mind would try and undermine the sector in this way? Yes, international students increase demand for housing, but so does everyone else who comes to Australia from overseas. Backpackers, tourists, temporary skilled workers, family members — everyone needs a roof over their heads.
Indeed, children who are born now will contribute to demand for housing some two or three decades from now. It would be ridiculous for the government to discourage citizens from having children in order to prevent a future housing crisis. But the dynamics associated with the cap are no different. You decrease the number of people in a problematic way as opposed to increasing the supply of housing in a legitimate way.
Costs and benefits
Universities are sometimes referred to as “sitting ducks” for a government eager to be seen as responding appropriately to the housing crisis. After all, it is much harder for the government to undermine sectors where the benefits are clear for all to see. A thriving tourism industry leads to a thriving hospitality scene, high profits for Qantas, flashy hotels. A thriving horticulture industry leads to fresh fruit and vegetables to eat.
But although the benefits of a thriving university sector are less apparent to those who have not themselves acquired a tertiary education, they are not things we should take for granted. Weaker universities mean weaker democratic institutions, lower standards of political and social debate, lack of vital professional skills, and lower levels of critical thinking that make disinformation during elections and referendums possible. Weaker universities make us all less likely to uncover the truth about the universe, our planet, our country, and ourselves.
Weaker universities with fewer international students also mean weaker democratic and liberal institutions abroad. As someone who teaches a course called Justice, I have had several international students tell me that studying at the University of Sydney has made them more critical of the political and social institutions in their countries of origin. These are students who will be agents of change back home and invaluable friends of Australia in the event of a regional conflict.
Migration leads to costs and benefits for every society. The smart way to deal with the costs is not to forego the benefits, but to distribute the burden fairly across all sectors of society. The federal government has many tools at its disposal that do not involve wrecking one the most successful sectors in the country.
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But, in all honesty, the economic argument is not even the strongest one. Australian universities play a key role in our ability to uphold the values of freedom, equality, and fairness in our institutions and daily lives — precisely the values that attract so many people to this country and that make so many of us willing to have children.
By undermining our universities, we may find ourselves less well-positioned to renew the next generation of citizens, whether they arrive here by birth or by aeroplane.
Luara Ferracioli is Associate Professor in Political Philosophy at the University of Sydney. She is the author of Liberal Self-Determination in a World of Migration.