Universities Rebounding from COVID Find Unwelcome International Student Caps

Without question the higher education and research industries are facing some challenges – however opportunities are still there with the right strategic intent

SPP has been working hard supporting our Higher Education and Research clients deal with the impact of international student caps recently announced by the Federal Government while maintaining the genuine, industry wide, desire to continue to improve the way in which education is delivered to our domestic and international students. Universities are at the heart of our economy and the impacts of caps will be felt for several years, particularly when compounded with many institutions anticipating a negative margin year in 2025 and 2026 as the recovery from COVID continues.

Universities will need to bolster parts of their institutions against the volatility caused by student caps (both here and abroad), tough economic conditions and the enduring COVID recover. However, opportunity, wile not obvious, still exists.

We’ve been working with our clients to prepare for the next few years and provide some examples of the themes of this work:

• Quantifying the impact of student caps on the broader Victorian economy, demonstrating the flow-on impacts beyond Universities themselves to the job market, construction, and GDP.  SPP’s work has been widely cited as part of the commentary on this debate.
• Making the case for additional investment in Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) as part of a plan to activate University campuses, leverage under-utilised land assets, and capture the benefits that can be delivered from the variety of off balance sheet options for Universities in the market.
• Reforming student facing administrative functions to drive stronger student engagement, improved use of available technology, and substantial reduction of administrative costs which delivers value direct to University surplus and financial position.
• Supporting major research project proposals including 5 of 7 successful Medical Research Future Fund submissions generating over $150m in research investment for client academics.
• Rationalising research space allocations for several institutions seeking to enhance the quality of utilized space and accelerate redundancy of space no longer required.
• Quantifying the economic, social and environmental impact of research and education activities to support State Government co-investment in research platforms, technologies, and industry co-location.
• Cost reduction and restructure of professional staffing divisions within institutions to drive direct and immediate cost savings utilising an approach.

There’s no doubt Universities would prefer not to have artificial limits to their international student cohort and SPP fundamentally disagrees with the application of limits. It’s a clear example of political expedience over economic reality however now is the time to turn to how we take advantage of this new world. If you would like any more information on our existing research or would like to explore any of what we’ve discussed here, please feel free to reach out.