Ombudsman to hear international student complaints

COAG has adopted Bruce Baird’s recommendation to extend the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to international education. But other Baird recommendations remain in limbo. John Ross reports.

Education providers will have to allow complaints and appeals by their international students to be heard by independent state statutory bodies or the Commonwealth Ombudsman, under an agreement reached at last week’s COAG meeting in Canberra.

Under the new measure, which was recommended earlier this year by the Baird review of the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act, students will be able to turn to the ombudsman if the states or territories where they’re studying don’t have their own appropriately empowered independent bodies.

The requirement – to apply from next year – is one of six new elements of the national international student strategy, which COAG managed to discuss between its health reform negotiations.

Other new initiatives include the establishment of a “provider closure taskforce” in each state to ensure “rapid and coordinated support” for students whose providers close down.

An international student consultative committee will also be established to give overseas students a national forum to discuss their experiences, and a national community engagement strategy will be developed to help international students connect with the broader community.

The Study in Australia website will also be broadened to include information on personal safety, student support services, and tenancy and employment rights and responsibilities. COAG noted a decision by Australian and New Zealand police commissioners to share information on safety initiatives for international students.

COAG also agreed on tightened eligibility arrangements for student visas, with applicants required to provide evidence that their health insurance covers them for their entire proposed stay in Australia. COAG said this measure, to apply from mid-2010, would help guard against students failing to renew their insurance.

It’s not clear whether this measure will have the same result as other recent changes to visa arrangements – fewer visas issued. The Baird review found that international students needed access to a wider range of health insurance policies.

Last week’s announcement also overlooked other Baird recommendations that the federal government had undertaken to discuss with the states and territories through COAG or ministerial meetings.

They include adequate resourcing for international education regulation, student hubs in each capital city, and mandatory induction and information provision requirements.

The deputy vice-chancellor (global engagement) at Monash University, Professor Stephanie Fahey, said some of these proposals could be addressed at the institutional level.

“People agree that these are areas that need attention, but you don’t always need a sledgehammer to crack a walnut,” she said.

“You need to engage at the national level for some issues, but the local level for others.”

Fahey said the strength of the COAG strategy was that it added priority, focus and coordination to local efforts. She said many of its elements were already being applied in “bits and pieces” through individual universities’ international student welfare initiatives. But “there hasn’t always been very good communication” between the groups striving to improve the international education experience, she said.

“The strength of this new strategy is providing those linkages – not necessarily a cumbersome organisation to sit over the top of international students, but to open the pathways of communication between these groups.”

The National Union of Students and the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations welcomed most of the COAG announcements. But they criticised the decision to establish an “unrepresentative” international student consultative committee.

“NUS and CAPA have been working for close to 12 months to establish a peak international student council which is endorsed by student organisations across Australia,” said NUS president Carla Drakeford.

“It is bewildering that COAG and the deputy prime minister would endorse a proposal for a body of hand-picked students for consultation instead of a representative body, when they themselves are elected,” said CAPA president Tammi Jonas.

Fahey agreed that empowering existing student organisations was preferable to establishing “too many” new ones. But she said there was a need for consultative arrangements involving organisations such as the police, fire brigade, Rotary, local government and ethnic community groups, as well as student advocacy groups.

ESOS Act reviewer Bruce Baird said he was pleased COAG had picked up on his recommendation that the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s jurisdiction be extended to international education.

The final COAG international student strategy will be released in the coming weeks.