Tertiary education
Multi-billion dollar global industry
Last week, we discussed how governments have preferences when it comes to education providers and how this influences resource allocation and provision of opportunities to favoured institutions to flourish. The tertiary education sector in Fiji was focused on to discuss how the previous government attempted to throttle the University of the South Pacific financially while ploughing funds into Fiji National University in an ill-concealed punitive attempt to create a credible direct competitor for USP. Some of you have asked me about what I meant by saying that government was playing a “game to the death” with USP. The answer is very simple, the FijiFirst Government was opposed to the report submitted by VCP Pal Ahluwalia in 2019 on mismanagement and malpractices by the regime that he replaced.
The USP Saga
THEIR response was to demand the commissioning of another report by an Auckland-based firm –— this resulted in the BDO Report. It is this report that escalated tensions at the top echelons of USP as one of the demands being made was to stand down VCP Pal Ahluwalia while the report was discussed among stakeholders and at the USP Council. It was obvious that USP was at the cross-roads with the Fiji Government who had earlier successfully “pushed” the previous VCP into withdrawing his support for internationally renowned economist Professor Wadan Narsey. USP and the region lost this prominent son of Fiji as a result of this government interference into USP affairs. Prof Wadan had been consistently critical of the previous government, and this did not sit well with the powers at the time.
In the latest case, the USP Council did not allow the Fiji Government to have its way and backed Professor Ahluwalia. That is when a number of punitive reactions followed. By the time government changed in December 2022, Fiji owed USP some $100 million in withheld annual contributions. On top of this, rules on government scholarships were changed to cripple USP financially. The Foundation Studies Program for instance was no longer government sponsored. This is a program offered only by USP, so the insidious measure had no impact on FNU. Likewise, scholarships for popular USP programs like BA/MCom Management were set at very high thresholds, so that fewer students enrolled in them. The
list goes on as the noose continued to be tightened. This is why I referred to it as a “game to the death” in an oblique reference to that iconic Bruce Lee movie, Game of Death. The aim, after all, was to choke USP financially until it begged for mercy and became compliant. Anyway, let us get back to reforms in education and the emergence of the phenomenon of international education.
International education
International education is a multi-billion-dollar global industry. It involves expanding the scope of provision of education especially with foreign students in mind. In Australia, international education is worth about $40 billion annually. In New Zealand it is the fourth largest export earner valued at $5.1billion. In Canada, its worth exceeds $10b. Most of the students who populate this sector are either from India or China. It is important for this series to note that the growth and significance of this sector is directly linked to reforms in education. Deregulation, as discussed earlier, was primarily aimed to free up space for private capital to invest in areas that had previously been exclusively preserved for government.
Keen observers will recall that Central Queensland University used to have a campus at Suva Point in the 1990s. That campus was leased from Telecom Fiji Ltd. It used to be a FinTel training centre before that. CQU students were mainly Asian. Unfortunately, Fiji was not as attractive to these students when compared to our more developed neighbours because of the possibility of migrating to these countries. This, and the political upheavals of 2000, prompted CQU to wind up and leave. In 2003, USP successfully tendered for and bought that campus off Telecom Fiji Ltd for $US2.4m. It was subsequently named Statham Campus and currently houses USPs Pacific TAFE, the Graduate School of Business and part of the Legal Studies program.
I mentioned earlier that foreign students have multiple motivations. One of the key motivations is to pursue the possibility of working in the host country while studying and securing jobs after graduating. This then paves the path to resident status.
There are numerous recent scandals involving Indian students in Australia. What happens is that back in India, enterprising visa agents have cottoned onto the pecuniary potential from students desperate to get a study visa to a foreign destination. The recent Bollywood movie called Dunki captured this brilliantly. Recent studies show that after arriving in Australia half or more than half of the students that were accepted at chosen universities did not show up for classes. Many of these simply disappeared or “ghosted” into the economy playing hide-and-seek with immigration authorities.
A good portion, however, were poached by rival private colleges who have slick agents working tirelessly on luring gullible students into their institutions. After all, these are private entities who moved into the sector attracted by the profit motive.
Their rhetoric is invariably focused on quality service provision in a role complementary to established tertiary education providers, but the salient motive is primarily money.
Reports reveal that these students are lured by cheaper courses at vocational institutions that can lead to job opportunities and, eventually, permanent residency in Australia. Some of these private providers even reward students who switch and join them with cash payments, iPads and tickets to attractive novel events.
The situation became so bad last year that a number of Australian universities including, Victoria University, University of Wollongong (UOW), Torrens University, Edith Cowan University (ECU), Federation University Australia, Western Sydney
University and agents working for Southern Cross University placed restrictions on student enrolments from India. The issue was raised at the highest levels between PMs Albanese and Modi last year. Despite that, there will surely be no return to the easier entry days of yesteryear as rules have been strengthened and the authorities have increased their vigilance. In 2023, 94 per cent of Indian applications for student visa to Australia were rejected by Home Affairs. Despite this, the cat-and-mouse game continues.
The enterprise being shown by foreign students, visa agents and private providers, however, is just one part of developments that have accompanied deregulation of the education sector.
An additional development is seen in the watering down of the rigour of programs and the proliferation of options for potential students.
I remember how when I was desperately looking for a doctoral scholarship in 2009, I was advised by a colleague that there were possibilities to do a PhD for $50,000 in one year! The plan would be to get a bank loan, attain the qualification in quick time, get promoted at work or land a better paying job and pay off the loan also in quick time. I immediately shied away from this because it appeared too good to be true.
The problem with these types of qualifications is that they are offered by newly established, privately owned providers who are driven by the profit motive.
I said earlier that provision of public services by private firms becomes complicated because of internal tensions between the profit motive and public service values. This will be developed further next week.
DR SUBHASH APPANNA
is a senior USP academic who has been writing regularly on issues of historical and national significance. The views expressed here are his alone and not necessarily shared by this newspaper or his employers subhash.appana@usp.ac.fj