A Greek Australian academic at Monash University has described as “short-sighted” the university’s announcement that a slump in international enrolments will mean cuts in staff.
“I think, when universities are being dealt with in those corporate terms, there are some serious moral questions that have to be asked.”
As the Australian dollar reached parity with the US dollar, Monash University vice-chancellor Ed Byrne told the ABC his university would be facing a 7-11 per cent drop in international student enrolments in 2011.
But Department of Economics associate professor Christis Tombazos said staff cuts would be short-sighted.
“These fluctuations are going to come and they’re going to go,” he said.
“I think the university should ride the storm when there is a need to ride the storm, and reap the benefits or profits when they materialise.”
Tombazos, who is the Executive Director of the Centre for Increasing Returns and Economic Organisation (CIREO), explained the slump in student numbers was due to the rise in the Australian dollar.
“The rise is because of the mining boom, and I suppose that makes studying in Australia more expensive for international students,” he said.
He added that it was “very hard to predict” whether the Australian dollar would continue to rise against the US, and described the university’s response as “myopic”.
But University of Western Sydney academic Dr James Arvanitakis, who is involved with the Global Autonomous Universities movement, said universities should not be tied to fluctuating international markets.
“The priority of a university should be about providing a service, not actually making money through selling education,” he said.
“I think when universities are being dealt with in those corporate terms, there are some serious moral questions that have to be asked.”
Arvanitakis said while international students were important in providing cultural exchanges, some universities had developed a “classic over-reliance” on international students.
“A lot of universities’ business models include having full-fee paying international students, so there will be some pretty nervous vice-chancellors flapping around,” he said, adding that government funding was crucial.
“I think a large part of it should be about government funding, about governments properly funding universities so we’re not scrambling around the world looking for students to come and help be in the black,” he said.