Education
a step forward, but social licence remains fragile
Australia’s international education sector has long been a cornerstone of the nation’s economy, culture, and global reputation. The announcement of a new National Planning Level (NPL) of 295,000 international student places signals both recovery and ambition. This represents an increase of 25,000 over the 2024–25 limit of 270,000, although it remains 8% below the immediate post-covid peak.
At first glance, this uplift is a positive recognition of the value international students bring not only to universities but also to local communities and the broader economy.
However, Australia’s social licence to host international students is under strain. The growing number of conversations and community dialogue surrounding the planning of nationwide protests on August 31 shows how anti-immigration rhetoric can spill onto the streets and into the daily lives of students.
An international student cannot be distinguished from a migrant, and nor should they be. All who come to Australia deserve to feel safe and welcome if the country wishes to bring in more international students.
Social licence in international education rests on trust. Families must trust that Australia offers not only high-quality education but also a secure and inclusive environment. If that trust falters, recruitment targets risk becoming unattainable regardless of favourable policy settings.
Students themselves are voicing this fear on social media. One remarked: “When locals start openly supporting anti-immigration protests, I worry if it is only a matter of time before that anger spills over onto students like me.”
Another student shared: “Some people keep saying these protests will not be that big, just a few hundred angry people and nothing to worry about. But do not be naive. The attention around this is growing every single day. I am seeing more locals supporting it online and joining in, and that is what makes it dangerous. It is not about the numbers anymore, it is about the mindset that is spreading.”
These concerns highlight that the protests are not only symbolic but also deeply personal for those who already feel vulnerable in a new country.
When I spoke with Marcela Lapertosa, director of education at Value Learning Intercultural Specialists, she emphasised that protecting Australia’s social licence requires a fundamental shift.
“We should move from a narrative of volume to one of value. Universities, schools and governments need to actively communicate the genuine benefits international students bring to local communities – not just in economic terms, but cultural richness, innovation, and global connections that strengthen Australian society.
“This means telling authentic stories of positive impact and building lasting community partnerships. It also requires moving beyond multiculturalism to genuine interculturalism, where different cultural groups actively engage with and learn from each other, rather than simply coexisting,” added Lapertosa.
This focus on interculturalism highlights that integration is not a one-way street. It is not only about how students adapt to Australia, but also how Australians adapt to and embrace them.
On the question of how institutions can better support integration beyond the classroom, Lapertosa was clear: “True integration starts well before students arrive and extends far beyond the classroom. We should begin building relationships early – even at the school level – creating pathways that foster long-term connections with Australian communities.
“Homestay programs need to evolve beyond their transactional nature into meaningful cultural exchange opportunities that benefit both families and students. Universities must invest in programs that connect students with local community groups, volunteer opportunities, and mentorship networks that help them contribute to and feel genuinely part of Australian society.”
She stressed that integration also requires recognising that host families and local students are learners too. “It is at this intimate, household or classroom level where perceptions genuinely start to change. When Australian families experience firsthand the humanity, aspirations, and contributions of international students, they become powerful advocates for the value of international education in their own communities.”
This perspective underscores that the increase to 295,000 student places is cause for optimism, but it will mean little if the lived experience of students does not match the promise. International education is built on more than visa numbers; it is built on the everyday reality of safety, belonging, and welcome. If Australia wants to remain a leading destination, it must not only open its doors but also open its arms.
This is the moment for universities, governments, and communities to reaffirm that international students are valued as people rather than purely economic contributors. Stronger investment in student housing, visible safety measures, and genuine community integration will be key to restoring confidence.
Ben SchofieldPolitics correspondent, BBC East
Ben Schofield/BBCThe start of the school year saw the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson warn parents about the need for children to attend classes.
Data suggests half of pupils who missed lessons in the first week of term last year went on to become persistently absent.
But school leaders say they are seeing more children who find attending school too traumatic.
What is it like having a child with what psychologists call emotionally based school avoidance and what should be done to help?
Family handoutThe final time Julie took her daughter to school in July 2023, a member of staff congratulated her.
Rosie, who was then eight, was “wearing a dirty pyjama top, a pair of jogging bottoms, a pair of trainers with no socks, she had her headphones on, she was holding a teddy”, Julie recalls.
“I walked into school and the [special needs co-ordinator] then said to me ‘well done, you got her here’.”
But for Julie, 48, it was not a “win”.
“She couldn’t even speak, she hadn’t eaten, she had maybe three or four hours sleep.
“But I’d done a good job as a parent for making her go to school?”
Family handoutAt the time Rosie, who has autism, was in Year Three at a primary school in Northamptonshire.
Julie says her daughter had struggled with the school environment since her time in nursery and is now educated out of school.
Rosie, she recalls, was “in fight and flight the whole time” she was in the classroom, which “just overwhelmed her”.
Eventually Rosie was “begging not to leave” the house for school and was self-harming, sometimes on the school run.
“She would have night terrors – she would be up screaming, if she went to sleep at all.
“It just felt as if I was walking her into the lion’s den every single day,” she says.
Meanwhile, Julie and her husband James received letters and home visits from school staff about Rosie’s attendance.
“It was very lonely.
“All of a sudden there’s these letters and people are talking about fines and I was lost.”
On that final say Julie says she “dragged” Rosie to school because “that was the expectation”.
Now she wishes she had taken Rosie out of school earlier.
“But I also feel that if I hadn’t have got to the point… where she broke, I would never have known if it had worked,” she says.
Ben Schofield/BBCBased on Rosie’s reaction to school, an educational psychologist who assessed her noted she had “emotionally based school avoidance” or EBSA, a condition school leaders say they are encountering more.
Anna Hewes, the head teacher of Prince William School, a 1,400-pupil secondary in Oundle, Northamptonshire, says schools are seeing a “big increase” in EBSA among pupils in Year Seven, Eight and Nine.
The transition to secondary school is, she adds, a “key time” and at the start of the school year EBSA is “at the forefront of our minds because of the new year sevens coming through”.
The “noises, the bustling nature of a school – the busyness, all the classes walking around” make it a “real challenge” for those with sensory needs, she says.
But more generally “it’s very tough to be a teenager these days”.
Smartphones and social media, she adds, mean “young people can’t escape anymore”.
“It definitely is a post-Covid spike and these young people are genuinely really struggling to step over the threshold of the school and sometimes leave their bedrooms.”
DJ McLaren/BBCAcross England, rates of “persistent absence” – when pupils miss 10% or more of lessons – have remained high since the pandemic.
Last academic year almost 19% of pupils were persistently absent, compared with 11% in 2018/19.
Mrs Hewes says EBSA is a “significant part” of the issue.
A lack of reliable data, however, means it is difficult to know how big a part.
Mrs Hewes says Prince William Academy prioritises “inclusion” and has recruited an assistant head teacher for “belonging”.
It has also opened a specialist “school-within-a-school” for pupils with EBSA, funded by North Northamptonshire Council. Four students have been enrolled so far and by 2028 it expects to see 48.
Jenny Nimmo, the head of inclusion at East Midlands Academy Trust, which runs Prince William Academy, says the unit will have more “homely” classrooms and on-site mental health provision.
She hopes it will be “future proof” because EBSA “isn’t going away”.
There are, she adds, “more and more young people” with “emotionally based school avoidance and indeed anxiety”.
Ben Schofield/BBCThe Compass Centre in Luton also help pupils with EBSA access education.
Dr Joanne Summers, Luton Borough Council’s principal educational psychologist, says the condition can appear suddenly but “when you look back, there has been anxiety around being in school” and one incident might be a “catalyst”.
Intervening early, she adds, is important, as falling behind on school work and losing contact with friends can make anxiety worse.
Dr Summers says Luton has been trying to move away from seeing school absences as “defiance and truancy”.
“We are being curious about what’s going on for that young person, why is it that they are behaving in this way,” she adds.
Ben Schofield/BBCGeoff Barton, a former head teacher in Suffolk and previous general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says there should be more “emphasis on the humanity of our schools” rather than “draconian discipline” over absences.
He is researching special educational needs (Send) provision for the left-leaning think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research.
He says the people he is speaking to are “universally saying” that anxiety among pupils has increased.
But the “age of anxiety” is only one reason for persistent absence.
Another is poverty, while he says there is also a “long shadow in education of Covid” when “schools started to feel a bit more of an optional decision”.
Cornelia Andrecut, the executive director of children’s services for North Northamptonshire Council, said the authority has offered training courses for schools to learn strategies to support children with EBSA.
The government says it will spend £740m creating “more specialist places in mainstream schools” and placing Send leads in 1,000 new family hubs.
A Department for Education spokesperson says: “Schools should take a ‘support first’ approach for children who are facing barriers to regular school attendance, and we are expanding access to mental health support teams in all schools, ensuring that every pupil has access to early support services in their community.”
Family handoutFor Julie, taking Rosie out of school was “not a lifestyle choice” but was prompted by “trauma and distress” that her daughter is still recovering from.
Does she regret pushing Rosie to attend school?
“Yeah – definitely.
“I always wonder if there was a bit of trust broken between us as mum and daughter when I still took her into that place when it was that bad.”
Earl Richardson was the president of Morgan State University between 1984 and 2010.
Morgan State University
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Morgan State University
Earl Richardson was a Black college president — “armed with history,” as a colleague described him — when he led a 15-year-long lawsuit that ended in a historic settlement for four Black schools in Maryland and put a spotlight on funding disparities for all of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Richardson’s death, at 81, was announced on Saturday by Morgan State University, located in Baltimore, where he served as president when he helped organize the lawsuit that began in 2006. It was settled in 2021 when the state of Maryland agreed to give $577 million in supplemental funding over 10 years to four HBCUs.
Richardson led Morgan State from 1984 to 2010 and he had long chafed at stretching the little funding he got from the state. In the lawsuit, plaintiffs argued that Maryland had historically underfunded its Black colleges and had put them at a disadvantage by starting and boosting similar programs at nearby majority-white schools.
David Burton, one of the plaintiffs, told NPR that the case was compared to Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark lawsuit that brought up similar issues of disparities in educational opportunities for Black students, but the Maryland case raised the issues for students in higher education.
In 1990, when Richardson was a new school president, students took over the administration building for six days to protest the school’s dilapidated classrooms and dorms, with roofs that leaked and science labs stocked with outdated equipment.
Edwin Johnson was one of those student protesters. “We originally were protesting against Morgan’s administration,” including Richardson, he said. “But then after we dig and do a little research, we find out it’s not our administration, but it’s the governor down in Annapolis that isn’t equipping the administration with what they need to appropriately run the school.”
The protest ended when the students marched 34 miles to Annapolis to demand a meeting with the governor.
Richardson, who spoke of taking part in civil rights demonstrations when he was in school, had subtly guided the students to the correct target, said Johnson, who is now the university’s historian and special assistant to the provost.
That protest helped pave the way to the future, historic lawsuit.
Because Richardson was the university’s president, and an employee of the state, he couldn’t sue the state. So, a coalition of students and former students was created, the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education Inc., to serve as the plaintiff.
Still, Richardson was the visionary behind the lawsuit, said Burton, a Morgan State alumnus and now a strategic planner for businesses. “He was armed with history,” Burton said.
“Dr. Richardson knew where the skeletons were,” Burton added. He was “a force that the state could not reckon with because of his institutional knowledge.”
At one point, during the trial, state attorneys objected to Richardson’s presence in the courtroom and asked the judge to make him leave, even though he had a right to be there as an expert witness, said Jon Greenbaum, then the chief counsel of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who helped argue the lawsuit.
Richardson stayed in the courtroom and “because this was really a desegregation case,” said Greenbaum, he provided historical detail that became critical to the arguments made by the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.
The funding that resulted, and Richardson’s leadership, jump-started what is now called on campus “Morgan’s Renaissance.” Or sometimes, said Johnson: “Richardson’s Renaissance” — because during Richardson’s presidency, enrollment doubled, the campus expanded with new buildings and new schools were added, including a school of architecture and a school of social work.
Richardson’s work put a spotlight, too, on the funding disparities faced by HBCUs across the country. They are more likely than other schools to rely upon federal, state and local funding — money that has faced budget cuts in recent years. Compared to other universities and colleges, HBCUs get a higher percentage of their revenue from tuition and less from private gifts and grants, according to one study.
In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008, Richardson emphasized the mission of HBCUs when he told lawmakers that Black schools like his educated the most talented Black students but also sought to attract students who didn’t consider, or thought they couldn’t afford, to go to college. “We can make them the scientists and the engineers and the teachers and the professors — all of those things,” he said. But only if “we can have our institutions develop to a level of comparability and parity so that we are as competitive as other institutions.”
Chancellor Sonya Christian of the California Community College system talks about the impact of funding cuts for students.
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