Policy commentator Abul Rizvi had some strong words for Australia’s worldwide education sector at The PIE Live Asia Pacific. Reflecting on the current political argument, he argued that the market has currently lost much of its social licence and is failing to respond with the severity the moment needs.
“It would appear the social license has actually been lost when the major polling political party is prepared to come out and state it will kill the market,” he stated. “The industry has actually lost a good deal of social license … What amazes me is that the industry seems totally incapable of putting its mind to doing that.”
For Rizvi– who is a former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration– merely railing versus federal government decisions is not a technique.
“What the industry has to do is create its own proposal, its own plan of procedures that demonstrably provide on the federal government’s goal to get net migration down to 225,000, and show the worth of the market to our long-term future. That is eminently achievable.”
Likewise, International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) CEO Phil Honeywood informed the Gold Coast audience: “It’s due time the sector came together for a real social licence project,” arguing that global education has been too peaceful about its economic, skills and soft‑power advantages.
“We’ve let ourselves down as a sector due to the fact that we haven’t been prepared to stand up and shout all the benefits we bring to our country,” he alerted, including that stopping working to do so leaves the field open to those who just ever discuss threats, not benefits.
What followed, in a later panel on social licence, was a wide‑ranging conversation that unpacked simply how fragile that licence has become– and what it may require to rebuild trust: moving beyond dollar‑heavy narratives, foregrounding trainee stories, and re‑anchoring global education in neighborhoods, authenticity and trust.
“We take a look at social licence through two lenses. One is the lens of the student– am I wanted?And the 2nd one is the community lens– do we desire global students in Australia?,” discussed Andrew Parker, partner, tactical accounts & collaborations at Voyage.
Trip, a social listening platform focused solely on worldwide education, is piloting what Parker refers to as the first Australian design to determine social licence and develop a baseline, in collaboration with Research study New South Wales.
Using API feeds from significant global social platforms, plus media and podcasts, the group is tracking unprompted conversations across 190+ nations.
Particularly on social licence, Australia is, as Parker put it, “least worst– the best home in a bad street” when you compare belief with the UK and Canada. “It is an asset for us to secure,” he worried.
Quarter one revealed a little improvement over Q4 2025, with Q2 anticipated to tick up somewhat once again. However, Parker cautioned, any sense of development is fragile.
“Social license, by its very meaning, is highly occasion driven … a racist event, somebody making a discuss a train to a foreign trainee, or a federal government policy announcement is a trigger.”
The 1 July visa fee trek supplied a live case research study.
“We saw a 100% increase in social networks discusses and a 190% boost in news coverage in the first two weeks of July compared to March. The sentiment was overwhelmingly negative.”
Crucially, the anger wasn’t just directed at Canberra, but likewise directed at trainees and the universities.
“What we’re seeing here is policy spilling out into neighborhood narratives, and it carries actually substantial reputational threat for Australia,” said Parker.
“Voices that began to appear in what were usually student-only subreddits were domestic voices, and those voices were overwhelmingly negative … When those hostile voices start to penetrate student spaces, that is a leading indication of increasing track record risk for Australia.”
Sharing the stage with Parker, Eve Ollerenshaw, principal specialist at Ollerenshaw Consulting, discussed: “For me, social license is about 3 things: legitimacy, credibility, and trust. You can’t have one without the other … however the outcome of getting it ideal is something really powerful for both the consumer as well as the organization along with communities.”
“There are a lot of really loud voices out there that are really very, really conservative which is manipulating markets that have actually never been controlled before for purposes that are quite ulterior to education.”
“The loudest voice isn’t constantly the one we need to hear … There’s a right wing component in social media nowadays that does extremely well out of selling worry.
“The loudest voice isn’t constantly the one we require to hear … There’s a right wing element in social networks nowadays that does extremely well out of offering fear.Eve Ollerenshaw
“Do our community have the reliable skills to filter what we require to hear, what we should hear versus what we are hearing? It is an extremely, extremely odd time,” she added.
Emily O’Callaghan, CEO of miXabroad, argued that companies are still leaning too heavily on financial messaging– language that just does not resonate with the neighborhoods whose assistance they need.
Referring to post-Covid research she helped steer, O’Callaghan kept in mind: “Framing international students as financially important or as talent didn’t resonate … as much as the trainees actually telling their stories themselves, getting in touch with peers and having actually that shared experience.”
For Linda Rust, supervisor, international Learning at the University of Melbourne, social licence is lived locally.
“When students enter into Australia, they’re actually wishing to make that connection in your area … with other trainees, but also with the local community, and really sort of build a location for them.”
Universities, she argued, have a particular duty: “It’s challenging for students coming here without any networks … universities have such a huge function to play in facilitating this since they’re the ones with the connections into community that can assist.”
Rust highlighted one student-led initiative, Being a Melbournian, where global trainees and older local homeowners built relationships through a structured semester-long program.
“Both groups experience isolation … and their experiences coming together and sharing their cultures truly made an effect on everyone in that program.”
Annette Kalczynska, President of ISANA: International Education Association, worried that practitioners are already working at the frontline– however frequently against structural constraints.
“Our members are seeing students on a daily basis … they are hearing a lot of advantages about remaining in Australia, however also they are dealing with obstructions … classes are separated … there is no interaction between domestic and international trainees.”
ISANA members, she stated, are constantly attempting to create connection and firm.
“We are attempting to connect them with offering chances, making them mentors … supplying management opportunities, linking them with short-term and long-term work.”
However she was blunt about resourcing gaps. “If [a counsellor] had the ability to see all the students who needed help, they would need to work 24 hours a day … Universities need to play more of a function as neighborhood connectors … if they’re going to rethink their technique and how they react to particular trainee experiences.”