For years, we have been fed the lie that international education is Australia’s fourth largest export, worth a fantastical $48 billion a year.
Unbelievably, the lobby group for Australia’s universities—Universities Australia—is now trying to claim that international education is Australia’s second largest export, behind mining:
“Curtailing growth in the $48 billion international education sector risks our nation’s ambition”, Universities Australia Chair Professor David Lloyd said.
“The sector is our second biggest export behind mining, worth almost $50 billion to our economy”.
You can see what Professor Lloyd has done here. He has grouped Australia’s three largest exports—iron ore, coal and natural gas—as one group, mining, to make education look even more important.
The reality is that the $48 billion education export figure reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is statistical fraud that does not pass the pub test.
First, the ABS wrongly counts all expenditures by student visa holders as an export, even if they pay for their expenditure with money earned in Australia.
Second, students are the only visa class other than tourists and holidaymakers who are deemed non-residents for the duration of their visa.
So, if a “student” enrolled at dodgy ghost college drives Ubers and fills up their car with petrol, it is counted as an export. Whereas if a migrant on a skilled visa fills up with petrol, it is not considered an export.
Third, data on migrant remittances shows that Australia received only $US1.6 billion in migrant remittances in 2023, whereas $US10.3 billion in remittances were sent out of Australia:
Moreover, the net outflow of migrant remittances has grown in line with the number of student visa holders:
How can international education be considered a $48 billion export when inflows of remittances are miniscule and money is literally being sent out of Australia?
Education exports must rank as one of Australia’s greatest statistical lies.
This issue matters because the education lobby, the media, and the government have used this fantastical export figure to argue for one of the largest concentrations of international students in the world.
