English Australia Conference

I’m Julian Hill, and I’m really sorry I can’t be there with you in Brisbane. I am hostage in Canberra as Parliament is currently sitting.

“Moreton Island Time” or “Eat Street Food Trucks Time” certainly have a better ring to them than Question Time!

I am speaking to you today both as Assistant Minister for International Education, and also as Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs in Home Affairs where I have responsibility for student visas.

While only recently appointed as Assistant Minister for International Education, I have championed this vibrant sector for many years. 

Indeed, I fell in love with international education more than ten years ago, through my work in the Victorian Government working for both sides of politics. In Parliament I started and chaired the Parliamentary Friendship Group for International Education, on a bipartisan basis.

International Education is a great Australian success story. Australia remains a destination of choice for international students seeking a premium, worldclass education and is a vital contributor to the social and economic prosperity of Australia and ELICOS is and must remain a key part of this.

International students positively impact our country, both while studying here and in the years and decades thereafter.

The numbers speak for themselves, just to summarise: 

• International Education in Australia is a $50bn sector including $1.7 billion of ELICOS activity. The sector supports over 250,000 Australian jobs and helps to fund Australia’s world class research, infrastructure and domestic teaching.
• International students make significant contributions to our labour market.
• Beyond the economic impact, international education fosters cultural exchange and builds soft power Australia through educating people who go on to be leaders in their own societies.
• Australia has educated over half a million students from south-east Asia in the last 2 decades alone, and many more globally, forging lifelong connections and mutual understanding. 

But the sector is so much more than numbers.

Behind every statistic about international education is a human story, usually of a young person who has chosen, and often sacrificed, to come and live and study in our country.

And so often that story begins in an ELICOS classroom.

Where many students may not only learn their first English words or begin to really immerse themselves in our common language, but also begin to find their place in a new home away from home.

ELICOS courses can be life-changing for students, helping to pave the way to achieving broader goals, be that a university degree, a vocational course, or a career path they dream of. Or simply to learn a language.

Language is so important to truly understand other people and cultures. A translation is only ever an approximation of meaning. Some words, concepts, feelings, phenomena, aussie slang only exist in their original language. 

I’ve often said I’ve only got one or two life regrets. One is never being able to live and work overseas because my daughter was born when I was in my early twenties and I’ve always been tied to Melbourne. The other is never learning a foreign language to fluency. 

But I will admit I have lived out one of my life regrets through my daughter. She studied Spanish – she did Japanese at school but unfortunately like many students fell off the perch around year 12 because she didn’t have time to learn all the characters, an issue we do need to think about as a country – but she took up Spanish in her IB and at university. 

She came from uni one day and we were chatting in the kitchen about her week where she said she might drop Spanish. I said “oh that’s nice darling”. So she asked me “Did you hear what I said” and I replied “you said you were going to drop Spanish”. She said “oh, I didn’t think you would be happy about that”, so I said “no its fine darling, its your life, its your choice. But I just want you to know that if you drop Spanish, I’ll start charging you rent”. And she screeched in outrage and I said “no, it’s a fully informed decision, if you drop Spanish I’ll charge you rent, but if you chose to continue studying Spanish I’ll pay for you to go and study over summer for two or three months in Madrid to improve your Spanish”. And she became fluent in Spanish. 

I tell that story to make clear my support for stand alone ELICOS as having value in its own right, even aside from its importance as a pathway to or enabler of further study.

Whatever their motivations, whilst studying, ELICOS students live, shop, volunteer and contribute to the life of the community, bringing energy, curiosity and fresh perspectives.

Most students return home after their studies, taking a piece of Australia with them.

Not just with a stronger English, but with a stronger sense of what Australia can offer. And hopefully a fondness of their time here.

We often talk of ‘soft power’ as one of the key outcomes we seek and gain as a nation through international education.

This is usually thought of in relation to higher education, but when you visit an ELICOS classroom at a quality provider – as I have been doing in recent months, keeping my promise to your formidable CEO and champion Ian Aird – the energy is infectious.

It’s immediately apparent that ELICOS providers make an often unique and underappreciated contribution to Australia’s soft power. Bringing together students from numerous different countries in the same classroom.

A true multicultural experience in our great multicultural nation.

Importantly, this includes giving a chance to study in Australia to students who otherwise would never be likely to learn here. For example, countries like Japan or South Korea that have relatively small outbound student markets to Australia.

Building bonds with bright young people from across our region and the world who we may otherwise not get a chance to know.

Despite all the great work ELICOS teachers and providers do, I acknowledge it has been a tough period for English language providers and teachers.

As I noted earlier, Ian Aird has been a tremendous champion for you, advocating for the sector’s needs to Government. Explaining in a clear, fair and constructive manner the challenges the sector is encountering. 

Ian has provided a flow of information, validated by official data, showing low enrolment and commencement rates – amongst the lowest since 2013.

I will address some of the questions arising in the Q&A section in a moment but acknowledge government policy settings are having an impact and I am listening. A shared understanding of the context though is important.

As a Government we inherited a mess in international education.

Multiple independent reviews coupled with visa integrity data and regulator reports revealed shocking misuse of the student visa system including exploitation, trafficking, work and migration scams.

Uncapped work rights had corrupted the student pipeline.

Onshore student numbers were growing rapidly and unsustainably, and there have been worrying patterns of new provider registration including in VET and ELICOS.

The social licence of the sector from Australians was under real pressure.

As a Government we have made tough decisions to tighten integrity settings, in particular in the visa system.

The intention in all of this is to return growth to sustainable levels and manage integrity issues, while continuing to welcome genuine, high-quality students from around the world at a sustainable rate.

Working with Jason Clare as the Minister for Education and Andrew Giles as the Minister for Skills, my focus over this term of government will be to support genuine students and quality providers.

To be clear, that includes the many high quality ELICOS providers.

The Government recently announced policy settings for 2026 which include a National Planning Level (NPL) of 295,000 new commencements for 2026, an increase of 25,000 from last year.

Standalone ELICOS students, however, will continue to sit outside the National Planning Level.

Policy settings and growth allocation for Universities, which many ELICOS providers or teachers partner with, will:

• encourage study across all of our providers, and in regional areas not just the big cities;
• focus on diversification to welcome more Southeast Asian students to Australia;
• link future growth especially at Universities with larger student cohorts to new student housing; and 

In closing, I acknowledge the theme for the 2025 English Australia Conference is to explore how ELICOS institutions are adapting, evolving, and leading in this environment.

Providers of course quickly adapted to deliver content online during COVID, and the sector has proven itself resilient over many years.

Adapting of course though isn’t just about being reactive.

It’s about actively innovating to evolve and succeed.

Despite challenges which abound for us all, I am confident in the future of our international education sector.

Thank you for your work.

I look forward to meeting more students and teachers over the next 12 months as I visit more providers and see firsthand the work that you do.