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Prior to the May 2022 Federal election, the Labor Party pursued a cautious manpower policy emphasizing more training for domestic students. The September Jobs and Skills Summit concluded that such is the seriousness of the nation's skill crisis that migrants must be part of the solution. For the business interests present, these migrants must include overseas students, trained in our universities. However, the Labor Government promised that, henceforth, the migration focus would be on permanent entry. This was to avoid a repeat of the huge pre-pandemic stock of vulnerable migrants (mainly students) on temporary visas in Australia's big cities and the threat this posed to union interests. Since the Summit, the Labor Government has increased the size of the permanent entry migration program and has flagged a sea-change in overseas student policy. Henceforth, according to the Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O'Neil, overseas students trained here will become an integral part of Australia's skilled labour force training strategy.

In early November, she asked: Is it the right thing to train these people up as best in the world trainees, give them first class Australian degrees, and then essentially require them to leave the country and go and use those skills elsewhere? The answer invited is clearly no. Australia should promote the overseas student industry with the goal of incorporating more of the graduates into our workforce, including those with vital IT and engineering skills. Aren't Australia's universities tasked to train domestic students in these skills? For years, governments and universities have affirmed this objective despite escalating foreign student intakes. However, it has not happened. Skill gaps are wider than ever. This report reveals deep inequities in the number of training places offered to Australian students compared to overseas students. The report finds that the share of the universities' training effort allocated to overseas students had reached 40 per cent of all graduations (domestic and overseas) by 2020, up from 35 per cent in 2012.

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The Australian Government has made a commitment to increase the level of higher education training in Australia. Its target by 2025 is that 40 per cent of all 25- to 34-year-old Australians will possess degree qualifications or above (from 29 per cent in 2006). This article examines whether this target is feasible. Various assumptions about domestic enrolment and immigration are modelled which take account of ageing-into and ageing-out of the 25- to 34-year-old cohort. The conclusion is that the 40 per cent target is very unlikely to be achieved because it would require an increase of at least 50 per cent in domestic undergraduate completions by 2020 and a sharp rise in immigration.

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In February 2010 the Australian Government announced a set of reform to the rules governing access to permanent residence visas and the temporary entry graduate skills visa (485) for overseas students who have completed courses in Australian universities and [vocational education and training] VET colleges. This article provides a history of Australian policy on the issue and an analysis of the likely impact of the new regulations. It concludes that the government has largely succeeded in de-coupling education in Australia from migration selection. As a result, it is likely that enrolments in the VET sector will shrink and that enrolments in the higher education sector will largely be confined to courses where students obtain qualifications that are of value in the country of origin.

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By far the largest occupational category of migrants gaining permanent residence under the skilled visa subclasses is accountants. The majority of these accountants are former overseas students trained in Australian universities. Few are obtaining employment as professional accountants. The main reason is that they lack the required English skills. English language test results recorded after they complete their courses in Australia show that most do not possess the English communication skills needed for university level study or for professional work in Australia.

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In the Australian higher education environment, often preoccupied with internationalisation of education and associated issues around intercultural competencies, there is an uncomfortable awareness of the commensurate lack of attention on 'Indigenisation of the curriculum' and the interconnected 'Indigenous cultural competencies'. This paper supports the argument that the optimum way for graduates to attain attributes connected to Australian Indigenous cultural competence, is for them to be in a learning environment where the staff they encounter also exhibit these attributes. To achieve success in this sphere, alignment is essential between key policies and plans, staff professional development and curriculum design. Such an alignment will give impetus to resolving the overall lack of knowledge and awareness within Australian universities around Indigenous cultural competence and knowledge. The case of one university presents an example of how this issue is playing out in the Australian tertiary sector.

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There has been a meteoric rise in enrolments of overseas students in cooking courses in Australia from around 1019 in 2004 to 8242 in 2008. All are trained in full-time courses conducted mainly by private providers - rather than via the apprenticeship system as is the case for Australian-trained cooks. Most of the overseas students who have finished these courses have subsequently gained permanent residence as cooks. Cooking is now the second largest occupation, behind accounting among those gaining permanent entry visas under the onshore former overseas student visa subcategories. This article examines the rules governing the training and subsequent visaing of these cooks. It concludes that there are serious gaps in the rules governing their training and the assessment of their competency. In large part because of these deficiencies, only a minority obtain employment in Australia as trade level cooks.

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Overseas student commencements in cooking and hairdressing courses have nearly tripled between 2004 and 2006. This growth reflects the advantages which Migrant Occupations in Demand List (MODL) listing of these two occupations has given for those seeking permanent residence in Australia. The article critically examines the standards of the registered training organisations (RTOs) providing the training. In particular the state and federal regulatory bodies which oversee their operation do not assess the competency of those completing these courses. The article concludes that only a minority of those completing these courses and subsequently gaining permanent residence will actually enter the cooking and hairdressing occupations in Australia. There is an urgent need for reform to the procedures by which occupations come to be listed on the MODL and of the skilled migration regulations which have allowed the situation to develop.

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