The claim that Australia's education export industry is a "giant migration scam" stems from concerns about international students exploiting student visas for work and residency rather than education. Reports, like the one from The Australian cited in the Macrobusiness.com.au article, highlight "phantom students"—foreign students, particularly from Africa, Pakistan, and India—who enrol in universities but drop out or fail to engage, as seen at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) with a 53.6% retention rate for first-year international students in 2024. Similar issues appear at Griffith University (73.4% retention) and CQ University (67% dropout rate in 2022), suggesting a pattern where students use university enrolment as a gateway to enter Australia, only to abandon studies for work or to transfer to cheaper private colleges.
International students, lured by generous work rights (up to 24 hours per week) and pathways to permanent residency, enrol in high-fee courses (e.g., QUT's $45,000 engineering degree) but often drop out after six months, the minimum period before they can legally transfer providers. Some engage in "course-hopping" to lower-cost institutions, facilitated by education agents who earn commissions.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) counts all spending by student visa holders as export revenue, even if funded by local employment (e.g., Uber driving). This inflates the industry's reported $48 billion (some even say $ 52 billion) contribution, masking its reliance on low-skilled labour rather than genuine education exports.
Universities, driven by revenue needs, lower entry standards and overlook poor engagement to maximise fees. Reports of "ghost colleges" and lax oversight by providers exacerbate the problem, with some students never attending classes. Political debates, as noted by Minister Jason Clare and Senator Sarah Henderson, focus on reforming agent commissions and imposing visa transfer fees to curb these practices, but legislative efforts have stalled.
The corrupt universities would be better off just selling their dollar degrees with the trouble of international students even coming here, but of course, it is all about migration.
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/04/more-proof-the-education-export-industry-is-a-scam/
"If you want further evidence that the education export industry is a giant migration scam, look no further than the latest report on "phantom" students from The Australian:
Foreign students from Africa, Pakistan and India have been reported missing from universities…
Phantom students have been exposed by the Queensland University of Technology, which revealed nearly half its foreign students had dropped out of their first year of study. "The retention rate for international students dropped to an unusual and historic low of 53.6% because of an unusually high number of students who did not meaningfully engage from the outset,'' it states in its 2024 annual report…"
"Foreign students from Africa, Pakistan and India have been reported missing from universities, kicking off a political blame game over immigration "rorts and shonks'' during the election campaign, after one institution revealed half its international students had dropped out or failed to show up.
Phantom students have been exposed by the Queensland University of Technology, which revealed nearly half its foreign students had dropped out of their first year of study. "The retention rate for international students dropped to an unusual and historic low of 53.6 per cent because of an unusually high number of students who did not meaningfully engage from the outset,'' it states in its 2024 annual report.
Fresh evidence that some foreigners are paying for student visas to gain entry to Australia with work rights, only to drop out of university, comes as Labor and the Coalition campaign to limit the international student intake.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the Coalition had "blocked'' Labor's legislation last year to ban migration and education agents from pocketing commissions to poach students from universities and enrol them in other institutions.
"Poaching of international students is a big issue,'' he said. "The government's reforms to improve integrity in the sector would have banned agent commissions on student transfers between education providers.
"This would help remove incentives for unscrupulous agents to poach students. The Liberal Party blocked these reforms.''
Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said the Coalition had supported the integrity measures but Labor had withdrawn the bill after the Coalition last year said it would vote against Labor's plan to impose quotas on international students for every university.
The Coalition has since pledged to restrict international students to 25 per cent of total enrolments at every university, slashing the national intake by 80,000 a year.
"The Coalition strongly supported a number of proposals to improve integrity in the international student sector but, inexplicably, Labor withdrew its bill containing these measures from the Senate,'' Senator Henderson said on Wednesday.
"This demonstrated the Albanese government was not serious about tackling rorts and shonks.
"In contrast to Labor, which sat on its hands, a Dutton government will take action to fix the integrity issues in the international student sector.''
During the election campaign, the Coalition has announced a $2500 visa transfer fee to discourage foreign students "course-hopping" from universities to other education providers.
Mr Clare said providers must monitor the study progress of international students, including their attendance. "A student can withdraw from their course at any time,'' he said. "If this occurs, the student's provider must report the withdrawal in the Provider Registration International Student Management System.
"When a suspension or cancellation takes place, the registered provider must inform the student of the need to seek advice from the Department of Home Affairs on the potential impact on his or her student visa and report the change to the student's enrolment in PRISMS."
International students are a lucrative source of revenue for cash-strapped universities, with QUT charging $45,000 a year for its engineering degree, and $36,400 a year for a bachelor of business.
QUT would not say how much money it had collected from the missing students, how many had left or where they had gone.
It also refused to reveal the students' countries of origin, and whether it had reported the issue to the federal departments of Education or Home Affairs.
"QUT, along with many other institutions, experienced an unusually high attrition rate among some cohorts of international students during the reported year,'' a spokeswoman said.
"We have addressed this with a range of measures to ensure students that enrol at QUT are committed to completing their courses with us. This relates to commencing students and is understood to be influenced by a range of factors including visa processing times, student deferrals and individual decisions around course or provider.''
Griffith University in Brisbane has reviewed its network of offshore student recruitment agents, after one in four foreign students dropped out of study last year.
"International student retention in 2024 was 73.4 per cent, well below the target of 93.1 per cent,'' its annual report reveals. "Interventions put in place to mitigate the retention risk experienced with certain cohorts in 2023 have seen a slowing of growth from Africa, in particular, but a more stable enrolment trend is emerging.''
Griffith University suggested students were course-hopping to other education institutions after six months of study.
"While recent retention rates for international cohorts from countries like Kenya, Pakistan and parts of India have been lower than our targets, this reflects on the evolving international student landscape and the flexibility students have under current regulations, which sees visa holders able to transfer to other institutions after six months study,'' a spokesperson said. "Griffith has advocated strongly for extending this period to 12 months.''
At the University of Sydney, which enrolled at least 31,000 international students last year, the attrition rate was 9 per cent.
"Our retention rate for international students for 2024 was 91 per cent,'' deputy vice-chancellor Joanne Wright said. "We know they can face particular challenges, including around studying in a second or even third language, and adjusting to life in a different culture and country.
"We continually work to ensure we're providing all our students with appropriate support.''
Former Immigration Department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi said Australia now hosted 850,000 international students in universities, English language colleges and private training institutions. "You can't drop out or change providers in the first six months,'' he said.
"Providers have a legal obligation to report a student didn't turn up to Home Affairs. The visa could be subject to cancellation but you have to locate the student: where have they gone?''
The federal Education Department's latest data, from 2022, shows 67 per cent of international students dropped out of a degree at CQ University in central Queensland, while Federation University lost 47.9 per cent of its foreign students. A CQU spokesperson said it had "implemented a range of internal strategies focused on improving student retention and completion''.
The national dropout rate for international students averaged 13.2 per cent in
2022."