Ms Gillard thanked Mr Baird for his hard work and commitment and for producing the report as a matter of urgency and agreed to begin work on implementing a number of recommendations immediately.

Following his review of the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000, former Member for Cook Bruce Baird has recommended immediate changes to improve the experience of international students choosing to study and live in Australia.

Mr Baird’s report, Stronger, simpler, smarter ESOS: supporting international students, makes recommendations including:

• more support for international students and improved information
• stronger consumer protection mechanisms to ensure students are protected from unscrupulous operators
• improved regulation of Australia’s international education sector
• improved support for those who study and live in Australia including having somewhere to go when problems arise.

Mr Baird has detailed the issues facing the sector and makes a number of recommendations for strengthening legislation to better protect international students and ensure Australia continues to offer a world class quality education.

The recommendations follow extensive consultation with international students, education providers, state and territory governments, regulatory bodies, student organisations, international education professionals, education unions, industry bodies and diplomatic missions.

Ms Gillard said the Government supports in principle recommendations to amend the ESOS Act to lift the bar on entry into the international education industry in Australia.

The Government will also move to implement recommendations which relate to restricting unethical student recruitment practices as soon as possible.

These changes will require amendments to the ESOS Act. Mr Baird will brief the Opposition and other parties on the review’s recommendations this week with a view to having them available for consideration by the Parliament as soon as possible.

Other recommendations will require consultation with States and Territories, the International Education sector and other Australian Government Ministers and consultation will begin immediately.

The final report of the Baird review including a summary of the recommendations is available at www.aei.gov.au.

To find out more about studying in Australia, read the latest i-studentadvisor Australia guide.

This new effort to allow academic exchange programmes between the US and Cuba has come as a result of Obama’s willingness to forge new ties with Cuba when he proposed an “equal partnership” with all nations of the Americas at the Summit of the Americas in April.

In the letter, signed by NAFSA and seventeen other organisations, the organisations praise Obama’s plans of a new beginning with Cuba and urge him to change the restrictions on exchange programmes between the US and Cuba as a vital step in this new relationship. The letter states:

“As you recently noted in your address to a group of students in Turkey, “exchanges can break down the walls between us.” However, Cuba currently remains the only country in the world where the United States government restricts study by American students, as well as academic travel by bona fide teachers and researchers….One way in which to advance opportunities for young people to engage internationally would be to lift the current restrictions and permit academic travel to Cuba via general license. We would also welcome a trend of granting US visas for Cubans coming for exchange purposes”.

The full letter is available to view and download here. NAFSA have also published details of the legislation and will update any changes on the Public Policy page of their website.