It’s a long way down - The underlying tensions in the education export industry

Oct 15, 2026

The article examines Australia’s higher education education export industry, describing its rapid expansion after 1990 and the sharp downturn that followed, while arguing that underlying tensions have long hindered quality improvement and long-term sustainability. It identifies imbalances driven by revenue-at-any-cost incentives and analyzes five key tensions spanning education and immigration policy, export commercialization and domestic system health, and competing models of engagement. It then proposes measures, including a bilateral and global protocol clarifying comprehensive rights for international students.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Drivers of growth

Underlying tensions

Proposed measures and global protocol (Compact)

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W It’s a long way down The underlying tensions in the education export industry Simon Marginson University of Melbourne The stellar rise of the education export industry in Australian higher education, and the even more spectacular downturn now occurring, mask underlying tensions that have long dogged the industry and prevented it from improving quality or achieving long-term sustainability. The international education programme has been unbalanced by the drive for revenues at any cost. The tensions are (1) between education policy and immigration policy,(2) between commercial export and the health of the domestic education and research system,(3) between neo-imperial economic exploitation of Asia and a more holistic engagement on the basis of equal respect,(4) between international students as consumers and students as people with comprehensive rights, and (5) between the national political economy and the global public good. The article suggests ways to resolve these tensions, including the forms of a bilateral protocol that would provide more coherent and comprehensive rights for international students. Introduction In the two decades after 1990 the number of international students in Australian higher education grew by an annual average of 12 per cent plus. This was an extraordinary rate of sustained expansion for any social sector. Between 1990 and 2007 international students in higher education rose from 25,000 to 254,414, one in five of all onshore university students. Four in five of these international students were from Asia (DEEWR 2010) . Total national exports of higher education, vocational education, schooling and English-language courses were $18.0 billion AUD in 2009 and student numbers in all sectors peaked at 630,000 in 2009 (AEI 2009) . By then education, a commercial export industry that did not exist until the last 20 per cent of Australia’s history, had become the nation’s largest services export and fourth largest export (briefly third) after coal, iron ore and gold, ahead of tourism and all specific sectors in agriculture and manufacturing. By 2008 Australia was the world’s fifth largest exporter of tertiary education with 6.9 per cent of all foreign students, though Australia’s population was much smaller than that of the other major education export nations. In higher education in Australia in 2008 a dozen institutions enrolled more than 8000 international students—more international students than in any American doctoral university—led by RMIT University with an incredible 22,497 international students and Monash with 19,079 of whom 13,131 were onshore, the largest group in any Australian university. Total national tuition revenues in higher education were $2.6 billion, 14.9 per cent of all income (DEEWR 2010;ABS 2010; OECD 2010) . These are all spectacular numbers with no equivalent in any other higher education system in the world. The first half of 2009 was the highpoint of the export industry. It seemed then that international student numbers, export revenues, university budget injections and the migration of international graduates would each go on expanding forever, with international student numbers ballooning to half or more of the total student body: the demography of urban Asia recast in miniature on the far underside of the world. vol. 53, no. 2, 2011 It’s a long way down, Simon Marginson 21 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Commencements began to slow in the second half of 2009, offshore visas started to fall and from the second half of 2010 onwards, international student numbers began to trend sharply down, first in vocational education and training (VET) and English language colleges and then in higher education. From the point of view of the many employees working in international education, not to mention the educational institutions and local economies dependent upon the export sec

FAQs

What caused Australia’s education export industry to grow so rapidly after 1990?

Growth in international students was sustained over decades, largely because the system was primarily supply-regulated rather than demand-regulated, with expanding Asian middle classes increasing applications.

What tensions does the article say underlie the education export industry?

It lists five tensions: education policy vs immigration policy, export commercialization vs domestic system health, neo-imperial exploitation vs holistic equal respect, international students as consumers vs students with comprehensive rights, and national political economy vs global public good.

How does the article suggest resolving these tensions for international students?

It proposes measures including forms of bilateral protocol to provide more coherent and comprehensive rights, and includes possible wording for a global protocol (“Compact”) as an appendix.

Oct 15, 2026

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