More than 1,750 delegates gathered at Sydney’s International Convention Centre from October 27-30 for the 40th Australian International Education Conference (AIEC), a milestone that proved less a victory lap than a reckoning.
Under the banner “Future Thinking”, AIEC 2026 faced a question: how can Australia remain a trusted study destination as student mobility, migration policy and public confidence continue to shift?
Australia arrived at the conference on uncertain ground. Preliminary government data showed overseas higher education commencements were down 4.9% year on year in early 2026.
The government has retained a national planning level of 295,000 new overseas commencements for 2027, even as changes to student dependants, onshore pathways and course transfers reshape the conditions under which Australian institutions recruit and support students.
Assistant minister Julian Hill brought visa certainty to the center of that discussion. He acknowledged that refusal rates were affecting key markets and deterring the students Australia most wants to attract.
No decisions have been made but a Home Affairs consultation is considering changes to Genuine Student assessments and financial-capacity evidence, including options for students to hold relevant funds in an Australian bank account before lodging a visa application.
“Even if this means raising the financial standards and a smaller pool of prospective students, I want grant rates to improve and greater certainty for everyone,” Hill said.
Prospective students are already responding to the wider uncertainty. IDP research released during AIEC found Australia’s first-choice share had slipped to 24%, following an almost one-quarter fall in six months, while more than four in five students surveyed were comparing multiple destinations.
Cost, visa prospects, policy stability and post-study options are now central to that comparison. At a student roundtable hosted by The PIE News, participants described what those choices look like in lived rather than statistical terms.
They spoke of misleading advice from migration agents before arrival, support that can be difficult to access once enrolled, and employment criteria that can favor domestic applicants or graduates.
Several linked financial pressure and uncertainty to the mental wellbeing of students and their families.
Students also resisted being framed solely as temporary visitors or an economic category. They spoke about checking on peers, building communities and contributing to the country around them, asking to be recognised as part of local life.
That combination of security, belonging and future prospects ran through AIEC’s discussion of employability.
“There is a difference between employability and employment,” Austrade South Asia trade and investment commissioner Vik Singh said. “Employment is not the answer. Employability is the answer.”
For students and families, rankings may open a door, but career pathways determine whether the investment makes sense. Speakers called for internships, work-integrated learning, employer engagement and career guidance to be embedded from the beginning of a student’s journey.
India offered a clear test of that proposition. With international providers opening or planning campuses in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, speakers said an international credential would need to be matched by local career outcomes, mobility options and trusted partnerships.
Panelists said the still-young model has few at-scale precedents and will compete not only with other overseas providers but with local universities that have established employer links and graduate networks.
“India doesn’t want a scattering of MoUs that hang on the wall,” Singh said. “It’s deeper partnerships that deliver.”
What would it look like if hope and trust were the watchwords as we built the future of education for international and domestic students? That would be a real delineator, I think
Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia
Transnational education (TNE) featured prominently throughout the conference, but was not presented as an escape route from a more difficult onshore market.
At a policy session, Universities Australia CEO Luke Sheehy cautioned against assuming that “the future is offshore”, while education minister Jason Clare made the case for delivery closer to students.
“Not everyone can come here to study. Not everyone can afford it. But we can come to them,” Clare said.
The global dialogue showed that Australia is far from alone in reassessing its model.
Canada is reducing volume while prioritising sustainability and graduate talent, New Zealand is pursuing growth within quality safeguards, and US institutions are being urged to adapt to a more multipolar higher education landscape.
“Business as usual is over,” said Michigan State University’s John Hudzik, who argued that “internationalisation is not just about teaching and learning. It’s also about research collaboration.”
That broader definition was echoed by delegates who urged Australia to connect international education more closely with research partnerships across the Indo-Pacific.
The question of public legitimacy also returned repeatedly. IEAA chief executive Phil Honeywood described a “conundrum of profit motive versus the public good,” arguing that the sector needed to show it was about more than fee income and migration settings.
In video interviews with The PIE, delegates called for a stronger social case for international students, more innovative employability support and recruitment strategies that look beyond the next intake.
They also cautioned that evidence alone will not shift public attitudes. The sector needs to explain, in local and human terms, what students bring to communities and why their experiences matter.
That attention to listening was evident beyond the main sessions. At the IEAA Excellence Awards, miXabroad won for a global benchmark that enables institutions to compare student experience and impact across learning-abroad programs, cohorts and countries.
Separately, six Australian providers backed a new benchmark intended to put student feedback at the center of education-agent evaluation.
At the close of the conference, attention turned to the Gold Coast, which will host AIEC 2027 from November 9 to 12 under the theme “New Generation, New World”.
IDP Education chief executive Tennealle O’Shannessy said the conference had shown that the sector must continue to collaborate as technology evolves and policy settings fluctuate.
“The priorities we’ve aligned on in Sydney now need to be carried forward,” Honeywood said. “As we head to the Gold Coast in 2027, we’re committed to ensuring international education remains a valued and trusted part of Australia’s future.”
Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard gave that challenge a wider political and educational frame in her closing keynote.
She urged universities to share authority with students and involve them meaningfully in shaping the future of education, particularly in a more cynical and distrustful public environment.
On the increasingly fraught debate around international students, Gillard said: “I think the only way of working through it is with the authenticity of local stories and community engagement.”
Her final question captured the task that will follow the sector to the Gold Coast and beyond: “What would it look like if hope and trust were the watchwords as we built the future of education for international and domestic students? That would be a real delineator, I think.”
