University of Tasmania to change international student recruitment processes

The program will look into the university's application of Medium of Instruction letters which were used as evidence to decide whether an international student had the necessary English skills to study at one of its campuses.

Vice-Chancellor Rufus Black in an email to staff on Monday said these letters would not longer be accepted as an alternative to the university's English standards.

This would only apply to students not already involved in an admissions process, he said.

"In the past, we have pursued growth in international students as we sought to lift numbers to something approaching the lower end of the national average," Professor Black said.

"However, since the release of our strategic direction paper in November last year, continuous growth in this area is no longer part of our future.

"We care intrinsically about our international students.

"They are not cash cows as they have been described by the program."

He said the university's strategic direction was one that did not rely on permanent growth of international student numbers and the actions highlighted by the program ran counter to "where we want to be as a university."

"We want to be a university that is focused on a high-quality education for qualified international students," Professor Black said.

Professor Hilary Winchester has been appointed to conduct the review on international recruitment and admission processes and an admissions committee has been established to provide oversight on applications.

The 2018 strategic direction paper stated there had been a decline in domestic students which had been financially masked by the rise of international student intakes.

"But they will always only be attracted to a limited part of our offering," it said.

"The sustainability of the rest depends on us restoring those numbers in core subjects."

The paper said the university also needed to find $30 million in savings each year.

The university accumulated $86 million in revenue from international students in 2017.

There was a 90-per-cent increase in the number of Chinese students commencing study with the university that year.