Alarm bells over Australian universities’ financial dependence on international students

Critics across the sector say institutions have become trapped in an unstable business model as they try to make up for loss of government funding

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Australian universities’ dependence on international student fees has “fuelled a culture of revenue, profit and competition” and created an unstable business model, the head of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has warned.

Critics representing various interests in the sector joined in expressing anxiety at the position universities had found themselves in as the federal government aggressively tries to wind back the number of international students.

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