THE University of Newcastle has "room to grow" its number of international students and could increase the size of the cohort to make up a quarter of all enrolments, according to Vice Chancellor Alex Zelinsky AO.
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He told the Newcastle Herald Australian universities including UON were overly reliant on international students to balance their books, saying the cohort had become critical in keeping institutes afloat in the face of falling funding.
"Without international students we wouldn't be able to offer the education we offer," Professor Zelinsky said.
"Our reliance is probably less than others, only 17 per cent of our students are international. But without them we wouldn't be able to run and that means Australian students would miss out.
"Universities have to be business-like and international students are a form of revenue required to balance the books in the absence of public funding."
Professor Zelinsky said government funding had been "flat" for basic research, "frozen at 2017 levels" for teaching and "no longer really available" for capital works.
"So the only lever that is left for universities if you want to build new buildings or replace things, because costs go up... is international. It's logical."
He said UON thought it could "take more... because we have cost pressures".
He said UON had financed the $200 million science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine facility to be built at its Callaghan campus on its own, from savings built from "pretty thin" surpluses.
"If we don't have international students we can't build such buildings," he said.
China, Singapore and India are the top three countries represented among UON's international students, which make up 17 per cent of its total 37,000, up from 13 per cent in five years.
"There's room to grow our international cohort," he said.
"If we went to 30 to 35 per cent that's probably too many, but [the aim is] probably somewhere in that range of the 20-something per cent - and we'd like to grow those numbers steadily.
"We do it without dropping our standards, you have to meet the minimum standards."
He said welcoming students from a range of countries would help continue to "internationalise" the city.
He said universities needed to be aware of foreign interference, but he didn't have any concerns at UON.
"We've got a great Confucius centre and we work closely with them.
"Their curriculum and mode of delivery is approved by us.
"We regard our academic freedom and autonomy of the UON as paramount and any partner we work with from any country or industry, they have to understand we have full accountability for our curriculums and how we teach them."
UON Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice President Global Engagement and Partnerships, Professor Kevin Hall, said UON engages with international students "in a number of targeted ways".
"These include sending our staff to overseas careers fairs, signing agreements with overseas universities for student exchange and working with select education agents whom we set strict quality control measures for.
"We recognise our responsibility to ensure all students, including those whose first language is not English, have the sufficient skills to undertake the program of their choice.
"We maintain a very robust admissions framework, including setting English language proficiency requirements, which are aligned to each of our academic programs.
"Of course, it's equally important to ensure that international students are continually supported so that they thrive during their time with us.
"We support students throughout their journey, starting with preparedness to arrive in Australia, through to customised orientation, connecting students with social programs, English language workshops and access to specially-trained counsellors and advisors.
"We are pleased that success rates for our international students are generally comparable with domestic students.
"We remain committed to welcoming students from a broad range of backgrounds, cultures and languages to our university."