Vice-Chancellor Pascale Quester remarks at the 2025 IEAA Conference

Good evening, everyone.

It is indeed a pleasure to be here with you this evening and to contribute to the important conversation that will take place over the next couple of days.

We are truly in a time of upheaval, uncertainty and unprecedented change for the international education sector – but if we think this is tough, let’s spare a thought for the international students themselves, who have already faced many challenges in recent years.  

I moved to Melbourne and started in the role of Vice-Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology right at the time Melbourne went into a long lockdown, on day 1 of stage 4 lockdown, to be precise!

Almost overnight, the university experience changed dramatically as borders closed and restrictions were implemented.  

The pandemic was challenging for all of us.

But we know it was especially  tough for international students, those who were stuck here with no resources or work and little contact with people at home and those who expected to come to Australia to start or continue their studies in person, and could not.

The ramifications of this uncertain time are still being felt.

Setting the scene: Australia’s international education sector 

Indeed, this community is facing even more challenges, brought on by decisions of our government that can be explained -- if at all--, by knee jerk and ill-informed response (at best)… or base political play (at worst).

Despite Australia's international education sector reaching a record one million international student enrolments in 2024, I believe a darker picture lurks behind these numbers.

Coming on top of random and ill-advised government decisions, including indiscriminate international caps, the restrictive MD107 framework for international student visa approvals created an inequitable system that undermined Australia’s reputation as a global education destination and threatened our progress as a knowledge-driven economy.  

Far from controlling the size of the intake, it skewed it in favour of those large universities where the proportion of international students already well exceeded the sector average. Indeed, MD107 accelerated the ability of large universities with intakes from China, mainly in business degrees of little or no relevance to the Australian economy, to capture the bulk of the limited visa processing capability available in Home Affairs. Honestly, you could not make this stuff up!

By 2024, offshore student visa applications had fallen by almost 40 per cent, compared to the previous year. That’s more than 100,000 fewer prospective students looking to study in Australia.  But let’s not think in terms of percentages and aggregate numbers and be mindful that behind that figure, there are 100,000 real people, and 100,000 real families, whose plan and dream have been 100% shattered by the unfolding of this folly.

While the new Ministerial Directive 111 replaced the problematic MD107 in late December, all we can say is that one arbitrary practice has replaced another and instability and uncertainty still remain, which may, which will, continue to discourage students from choosing Australia as a study destination.

For years, Australia has been seen as a higher education destination of choice.

We have some of the best universities in the world here.  And I am very proud to be leading one of them.

At Swinburne, we are proud to be part of this world-leading group, ranking in the top 300 universities globally in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and ranking as the top Victorian university under 50 years old. In many of our strategic disciplines of excellence, we are in the top 100. In research quality, we are right up there.

However, the current situation undermines Australia’s and our own global standing as a premier education provider and destination.

We know that these policies and the accompanying public narrative are deterring international students from coming to Australia.

Alongside many of my university peers, and people in this room like the IEAA’s Phil Honeywood, I have been very vocal in urging the Federal Government to restore fairness, stability and trust in our education system.

What is happening is damaging to Australia’s long-term economic and technological future at worst. But more importantly, it is depriving our country of its best chance to access the talent we so desperately need to pivot from an economy that just digs things out of the ground to one that is tech savvy, entrepreneurial and part of the knowledge economy.

The impact on international students 

One of the comments that Phil Honeywood made in the media has particularly stuck with me.

He said that Australia’s political decisions affecting this sector are sending the message loud and clear that international students are not welcome here.

I think he is right.

But international students are not some mythical group of people.

They are individuals with dreams, ambitions, and, for some of them, the perfectly legitimate desire to contribute to our national project. These students come to Australia, receive an excellent education and, when they opt in to stay, they go on to build careers, lives and communities here.

I am one of those people who benefited from an academic and career journey only made possible through international education.  As a first in family, my journey has taken me from one semester of study abroad to further study on multiple continents to job opportunities that led me to Australia, where I have been since 1991.

These experiences have stretched me beyond anything I could have imagined and have absolutely shaped me.  And I recall the trepidation, courage and sheer determination that it takes to fly away from the familiar and comfortable nest into the unknown and onto the global stage.

So, what I lament the most in the current public discourse is that percentage and dollars are masking what international education is all about. So many inspiring personal stories…

Stories like that of Swinburne alum Fazil Mohammed, an international student from India who completed his Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology at Swinburne.  

Not only did he excel academically in his time with us, but he was also an active member of our community, earning him the Swinburne Emerging Leader award during his time with us.

His positive impact was recognised in October last year when he received an International Alumni of the Year award by the Victorian Department of Education for his exceptional contributions as a role model to the international student community. 

Today, Fazil is a Cloud Operations Engineer with PwC Australia where he continues to make meaningful and important contributions to our community.  How many Fazils are currently wondering whether they can get a visa to study in Australia? How many have already decided their dream will not be in Australia but elsewhere? Can we afford to lose their talent? To miss out on all that potential?

Another story that sticks with me is Swinburne alum Huong Dang, a Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation graduate.

Huong is from Vietnam and overcame a childhood of extreme poverty to achieve her lifelong dream of studying at university. Spurred on by the experience of her sister and full of the entrepreneurial spirit we like to foster at Swinburne, she founded the first social enterprise in Vietnam that helps women experiencing domestic violence, and she was selected as one of 12 emerging leaders worldwide to join the Obama Foundation Scholars Program at Columbia University in New York City. How many Huongs are out there and can we really slam the door in their face?

At Swinburne, we are a truly global university.

Amongst our student body, there are more than 140 nationalities represented. Our students and staff collectively speak more than 185 languages. Our alumni community is a network of more than 246,000 students across 165 countries. My team is made of people with different accents and mine is only one of them…and we are all the better for it.

Swinburne also has a strong presence in Asia, with a long-standing campus in Sarawak, Malaysia, that will celebrate its 25th year this year. We also have three teaching locations in Vietnam, an office in Nanjing, China and a range of transnational educational partnerships across Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and elsewhere.

Our community is so much more vibrant, enjoyable and rich because of our diversity, our international students, and our global engagement. 

Securing Australia’s economic and technological future 

As Vice-Chancellor of a university with technology in its DNA, one thing is most concerning to me.

These restrictive policies are deterring the talented international students who are vital to securing Australia's economic and technological future.

Right now, Australia is grappling with a national crisis in the pipeline of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills.

Data from the Federal Government’s Tertiary Collection of Student Information (TCSI) shows domestic STEM enrolments peaked in 2021 but have since dropped steadily, by 3.1% in 2022 and a further 1.4% in 2023.

The trends are most pronounced in high-demand areas like Information Technology, Engineering, and Natural and Physical Sciences, where domestic enrolments are flatlining or decreasing.

We simply do not have enough domestic students to fill the gaps in sectors that are critical to our economic growth and prosperity.

Forget about brain drain – our nation is at serious risk of a brain drought.

The folly of the previous government was to think that a price signal would, like some sort of epiphany, motivate year 12 students with no affinity for STEM to suddenly decide on an engineering career. The folly of our current government is to believe that this does not matter and that industry will manage, somehow to upskill they current (and aging) workforce or find local talent to keep their business going. As if!

In 2022, the OECD reported that Australia’s skills gap was the second worst in the developed world, and this is particularly noticeable when it comes to tech skills.  

The Tech Council of Australia has estimated that Australia will need 1.2 million people working in technology-related jobs by 2030, and the Australian Government has committed to meeting this target. 

To reach this goal, we will need to find an extra 650,000 tech workers with the right skills by the end of the decade.  Good luck trying to upskill that many or convince that many year 12 students…It is simply not going to happen!

We also know that we will need skilled workers across the engineering and construction industry, particularly in our regional areas, to ensure we are able to harness our abundant renewable energy resources and transition away from fossil fuels.  

Automation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence are transforming our world. But technology on its own will not fix the world’s problems, we also need the people who can work with that technology.

For example, software developers, cyber security specialists and data analysts are particularly in demand, and hundreds of thousands of roles are likely to be impacted by AI in coming years.

As a nation, we must ensure that Australia has the supply of workforce skills that can power our economic growth.

And guess what? As much as they hate to admit it, government needs to realise that universities are key to this effort. And that the jewels in the crown are the dual sectors, of which they are only 6 in Australia, with one – Swinburne – dedicated to technology.

At Swinburne, our mission is to bring people and technology together to build a better world.

Our vision aligns with the plans the Government has for this country, especially in the ‘Future Made in Australia’ plan – a strategy all about investing in the skills and training to build Australia’s future workforce to transition our nation to a net-zero economy and stimulate growth and innovation.

For Australia to remain competitive now and into the future, our graduates need to be work-ready, graduating with industry-relevant knowledge and skills, with the ability to apply them to add value in professional workplaces immediately upon graduation.   

That is why we are committed to partnering with industry, organisations and government to co-create technology solutions – and the talent required to implement them – to address the world’s most pressing challenges. This is why we have facilities co-created and co-funded with partners like Trimble or Korda Menta.

But we simply can’t do it without international students. They are and will continue to be playing a vital role in addressing this gap.

The data reveals that, in contrast to domestic students, international student interest in STEM subjects has increased by 39% since 2021.

But instead of encouraging the talent in our region, we have slammed the door in their faces with hastily crafted policies that satisfy short term political objectives and inflict long term damage to our national ambition.

Even if we could work out a way to turn around domestic interest in STEM subjects, a long term endeavour and therefore of no interest at all to politicians obsessed with the next election, international students will play an essential role in the workforce we need now and into the future.

As a nation, we cannot afford to allow this talent pipeline to run dry.

We need urgent policy reforms to maintain and enhance Australia’s pipeline of STEM talent, ensuring that the country continues to benefit from the expertise of international students in these critical areas and safeguard Australia’s STEM future.

Conclusion 

As a university defined and inspired by technology, Swinburne will never stop advocating for protecting and enhancing our STEM talent pipeline. And as a person whose life and career were so profoundly shaped by international education, I shall continue to advocate for the benefits it brings our country and community.

This is not just about the interest of universities – it is truly essential for a ‘Future Made in Australia’ and critical for delivering the skills and training required to ensure a better future not just for them, but for all of us.

Thank you.