The Institute of Public Affairs’ domestic university student dropout rate research was discussed by Peta Credlin and Caroline Marcus on Sky News Australia on 23 October 2024.
Peta Credlin:
Welcome to you both. Let’s go to that data on universities, Caroline. They’re finding it pretty hard to balance being activists. We’ve seen all those protests in recent months about anti-Israel activism, and actually getting the job done and getting a degree under their belt. We’ve had a look at some analysis from that Federal Education Department. This is from the Institute of Public Affairs. Just 62% of domestic students are finishing their degree, compared to almost 80 per cent of the foreign student cohort, and we’re losing kids at a vet science, teaching, and pharmacy. This is extraordinary and it’s part of the problem why we’re not getting these jobs filled and we’re so reliant on migration.
Caroline Marcus:
Look, foreign students have always been a big cash cow for Australian universities. Speaking as a recovering cash cow myself, I was a foreign student, overseas student 20 years ago, to reveal how old I really am, it was the case back then as well, Peter. I was actually astonished as a student that I only needed to pass my exams and I’d be accepted. They didn’t really care about what marks that I got at the time, relatively speaking, compared to other countries. It was a lot easier to get into a top Australian university, depending on your degree.
But while not much has changed, there’s a lot more overseas students. Five times as many compared to some 20 years ago now. So it’s becoming even more of a problem. And while the activism has always been there, radical activism, it’s got a lot worse. These figures are from two years ago, so before the pro-Palestinian encampments we saw, but that’s just the latest genesis of it. It’s always been around. It’s just probably even worse now that they’re indulging this kind of extremism on campus. And I already know of Jewish students who are dropping out of places like the University of Sydney because they don’t feel safe, and it’s not in line with the values that they hold. But there’s so many other reasons as well that universities do seem to care more about revenue rather than giving people a quality education.
Peta Credlin:
Yeah, and you saw those numbers there.
This transcript from Credlin – Sky News Australia from 23 October 2024 has been edited for clarity.
