Page 3828 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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EDUCATION SERVICES FOR OVERSEAS STUDENTS
(REGISTRATION AND REGULATION OF PROVIDERS) BILL 1994
Debate resumed from 13 October 1994, on motion by Mr Wood:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR CORNWELL (8.13): Madam Speaker, as members will be aware, this is the second piece of legislation presented to the Assembly on this subject. The first was presented last year, 1993. It was withdrawn so that aspects of it could be strengthened in the complementary Commonwealth legislation. Nevertheless, it was hoped that, notwithstanding the delay in introducing this new legislation, State legislation would be passed by the end of this year, 1994, to take over the running of the registration and regulation of providers - firstly, in the interests of efficiency; secondly, because competent accreditation agencies exist at State level, and that includes the ACT; and, finally, if I may say so, in an unusual display of honesty for a centralist Labor Federal Government, because education is a State and Territory responsibility. I believe that we in the ACT are at least on track with the timetable for passing this legislation - which, I hope, will occur this evening - in time for its implementation in 1994.
As the Minister himself acknowledged in his tabling speech, the increasing number of overseas students coming to this country to study should not be jeopardised by financial collapses or unscrupulous practices of a few private providers. There have been one or two fairly spectacular collapses of private organisations. I say this because, frankly, the international competition for such students is simply too competitive for this country to ignore the repercussions if such unscrupulous, indeed illegal, behaviour goes unchecked.
I am not sure how many overseas students are studying in the ACT. We know that our Department of Education has had a rise in the number of Japanese students in our government schools since the Japan visit by the Chief Minister and entourage last year. I understand that we have something like 120 overseas students in ACT government schools. Obviously, not all of them are Japanese. I also understand that about 7.5 per cent of the 9,000 students at the University of Canberra and about 2 per cent of the students at the Canberra Institute of Technology are from overseas. There is also a small number of fee-paying overseas students at ACT non-government schools.
It is a fact that this legislation does not affect any of those educational institutions, because under clause 6 of this legislation non-government schools registered under the Education Act 1937, government schools and public tertiary institutions will automatically receive accreditation. Indeed, it is interesting that most private education providers here in Canberra are tutors rather than schools. From my investigations and from advice I have received, I understand that we would have only three or four private providers. Nevertheless, the importance of having local legislation cannot be ignored. Hopefully, we can expect more overseas students to come to Canberra to study, particularly when the reputation of the CIT's hotel school - even though it is accredited under clause 6 of this legislation - permeates throughout South-East Asia.
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