AUSTRALIA risks squandering its $15.5 billion higher education export industry within 10 years, unless the Federal Government takes urgent action, says the vice-chancellor of Sydney University, Michael Spence.
He warned that continuing reports of racist violence, shonky private colleges providing dubious diplomas and visa abuses were damaging the good reputation of Australia's education industry.
However, Dr Spence said new and emerging global competitors posed a greater and longer-term threat. China, the main source of our international students, would increasingly educate its young people at home and look to England, Canada and the United States, the latter of which had shaken off its post September 11, 2001, aversion to overseas student, he said.
Sydney University and Macquarie University have the highest reliance on Chinese students, both in absolute numbers and proportionate terms, closely followed by Adelaide and Wollongong, according to Australian Education International figures. At Sydney University more than 40 per cent of international students are Chinese.
The big universities such as Sydney, NSW, Melbourne, Monash and Macquarie each have more than 10,000 international students on campus, paying on average between $20,000 and $30,000 a year.
This guarantees $200 million to $300 million a year for each university - in some cases over 20 per cent of total revenue.
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