SYDNEY: Australia plans to cap foreign student numbers from next year, the government said Tuesday, curbing a multi-billion dollar industry as it faces political heat on immigration.
New international student numbers for university, higher education and vocational training will be limited to 270,000 in 2025, Education Minister Jason Clare told a news conference.
“It will mean that some universities will have more students this year than next year. Others will have less,” Clare said as he unveiled the plan, which will require legislation.
Official data show that foreign students were worth more than Aus$42 billion ($28 billion) to Australian universities and vocational education centers in 2023.
Australian authorities granted more than 577,000 international student visas in the fiscal year to June 30, 2023.
Clare said the change would mean about the same number of international students starting a course next year as there was before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 2025 breakdown will be 145,000 new foreign students for universities, 30,000 for other higher education providers, and 95,000 for vocational education and training, the government said.
The new limit aims to replace a recent policy of giving priority to students deemed to be at low risk of visa non-compliance — a system that has favored top-ranked universities while drastically slowing visas for other institutions.
“We acknowledge the government’s right to control migration numbers but this should not be done at the expense of any one sector, particularly one as economically important as education,” said Universities Australia chair David Lloyd.
International students were Australia’s second largest industry after mining, accounting for more than half of the growth in Australia’s economy last year, Lloyd said.
“Every dollar from overseas students is reinvested back into Australia’s universities. Having fewer students here will only widen the funding gap at a time universities need greater support.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said this month the industry was “absolutely vital” for Australia.
But he said universities should not be overly reliant on overseas students, in part because of the implications for migration.
About 69 percent of Australian respondents blamed immigration for high house prices, said an Essential poll for The Guardian published on Tuesday.
About the same share of people — 42 percent on each side — described immigration as “generally positive” or “generally negative,” it said.
Net migration to Australia surged 26.3 percent in calendar 2023 to 547,300, official figures show, with 751,500 people immigrating while 204,200 left.
Australia’s government also plans to protect the international education industry from “crooks who try to exploit it,” the education minister said.
More than 150 “ghost colleges” had recently been shut down, Clare said, describing them as “a back door” to let people work in Australia rather than get an education.
Australia to cap foreign student numbers at 270,000
https://arab.news/y2v33
Australia to cap foreign student numbers at 270,000
New ‘superfood’ transforms livelihoods in India’s rural east
- Known as fox nut or lotus seed, makhana is rich in protein, dietary fiber, minerals
- Most of the world’s makhana production is in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states
BIHAR: Wading through knee-deep, stagnant water, Mahesh Mukhia plunges his hands into the mud, pulling up handfuls of sludge that he and others toss into a large, partially submerged basket.
After a while, they shake the basket to drain away the water and debris. What remains is makhana — round black seeds that have lately gained popularity as India’s new superfood.
A regional Indian snack, also known as fox nut or lotus seed, makhana is the edible seed of the prickly waterlily. The plant grows in freshwater ponds and wetlands in southern and eastern Asia.
After makhana seeds are handpicked from pond beds, cleaned, and sun-dried, they are roasted at high heat so their hard black shells crack open and release the white, popcorn-like puffed kernels, which are eaten as snacks or used in dishes.
It has long been known for its nutritional value — high in plant-based protein and dietary fiber, the seeds are also rich in minerals and gluten-free — which over the past few years have helped it gain global attention and are transforming farmlands in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states.
“Earlier, people were not researching it but now, after research, makhana’s nutritional values have been highlighted. Now this is a superfood. That’s why demand is growing everywhere,” said Mahesh Mukhia, a farmer in Kapchhahi village in Bihar’s Darbhanga district, whose family has been harvesting the seeds for generations.
“The difference is that my forefathers did farming in a traditional way, but we’ve learnt to do it in a scientific way,” Mukhia told Arab News.
“There is Bhola Paswan Shastri Agricultural College in the neighboring Purnea district. I went there for training. After I started practicing farming the way I learnt, the yield increased by more than 30 percent.”
Makhana farming is highly labor-intensive, starting with the cultivation of water lilies in shallow ponds. The plants require constant monitoring as they are sensitive to water levels and pests.
Harvesting takes place between August and October. Workers pluck the seeds by hand and then dry them under the sun for several days before they can be processed.
The processing and roasting of makhana also require significant effort. The dried seeds are first de-shelled by manually cracking them, followed by multiple rounds of roasting to make them crisp.
Whole families are involved in the production, which has been expanding since 2020, when the state government introduced the Makhana Development Scheme.
Besides training in farming and processing, growers who cultivate fox nut receive $820 per hectare.
“The rate has also gone up. The makhana that we used to sell at 200-300 ($2-$3) rupees per kg is now selling at 1,000 ($12) or 1,500 rupees per kg,” Mukhia said.
“Makhana farmers are now making a profit. Those who are growing makhana are earning well, those who are popping it are also doing well, and those involved in trading are making profits too. We are getting good demand from everywhere. I just received an order for 25 tonnes recently.”
Bihar currently produces over 85 percent of India’s makhana and accounts for most of the world’s production, according to Ministry of Commerce and Industry estimates.
According to reports by the Indian Brand Equity Foundation and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, India accounts for roughly 85 to 90 percent of the world’s production.
Farmland where the crop is grown has increased many times over the past decade and can now be compared to the area covering half of New York City.
More than 600,000 people are involved in the makhana industry in Bihar, according to Niraj Kumar Jha, Darbhanga district’s horticulture officer.
“Earlier, we were cultivating 5,000 hectares in the Kosi and Mithlanchal regions. But now it has expanded to 35,000 hectares, and with many supportive schemes, farmers are increasingly encouraged to grow makhana,” he said.
“We are strengthening our marketing channels. We’ll reach the metro cities as well as world markets ... We can see that makhana is growing very popular, not only in India.”
