Academic research the cost of Intl Education - A case of Kenyan Students in Australia

Kenyans are flocking to Australia as a leading destination for education, but this comes at relatively higher cost and many times attached to low-return on investment back in the home country. Particularly, and though recognised as a centre of quality education, increased fee often act as an impediment towards acquisition by international student (University of Melbourne, 2025). These coupled with visa restrictions and high cost of living in the country inevitably pushes away majority of Kenyan youths who would otherwise use these opportunities to positively shape future of their home country.

For instance, with most public universities  in Australia charging a tuition fees of approximately AUD47,000 and AUD 60,000 annually in most fields, with engineering, health and law being on the higher side (University of Sydney, 2025), it becomes almost impossible for many kenyans to raise the amount owing to their low-income background. Along with the high tuition fee, student services and amenities fee, Australian student visa regulations mandate overseas student health cover across the entire visa term. According to the University of Melbourne (2025), this expense is not trivial- and evidence of financial ability to meet living expenses must be proven. Ultimately, this leaves out majority of Kenyan students who desire to advance their career in Australia out and unable to effectively contribute to Kenya’s development.

For the few that manages to be admitted to Australian universities, the most are forced to bend to pressures bordering the exploitative state of modern-day slavery (Department of Education, 2025). For example, the Australian work rules restrict how much relief students can get by taking up employment. Particularly, from 1^st July 2023, student visa holders have been limited to working no more than 48 hours in any fortnight during teaching periods, and have no limit in other periods; this setting is still in effect in 2025 (Study Australia, 2025). While the cap is meant to shield the quality of the study, it also limits Kenyan student in Australia their disposable income. Violation may result in the visa cancellation, which the border officials have imposed in documented instances (News, 2025). Even though there is an opposition proposal of the cap – to increase the limit to 60 hours per fortnight, change has been hindered by the state which terming it as a proposal and not a law to be amended (Parliamentary Budget Office, 2025).

Besides, the temporary graduate (subclass 485) visa has continued to be an essential entry point for compensation of investment in education through Australian work experience after graduation (Study Australia, 2025). Though necessary, it has been made mandatory for graduands (Department of Home Affairs, 2024b) – making it appear like students are paying for the educational experiences they have gained through work that otherwise develop not Kenya (their home country) but their preferred education destination country (Australia). Still, the Government has increasingly restricted and refined these environments, making planning riskier for students towards graduation (Department of Home Affairs, 2024b).

Under the law, the Modern Slavery Act 2018 of Australia is defined as any form of severe exploitation including but not limited to force labour and trafficking (Landau & Marshall, 2018). High fees and living costs alone do not constitute that standard, however, institutionalised underpayment and exploitation of international students in low-paying industries is a grave exploitation. A historic national survey by Berg and Farbenblum (2020) indicated that many international students were robbed of their wages and that many feared reporting this, prompted by immigration-status precocity and employer power. The provisions by the Australian government emphasise that international students have to be paid the minimum wage and have to be provided with payslips, however, enforcement gaps and power asymmetry still exist curtailing the process (Department of Education, 2025). From this perspective, although the general education system of Australia is not modern slavery, financial and regulatory systems establishes areas of vulnerability, particularly when living expenses are very high and the number of hours worked is limited, but students have to afford or earn their basic needs.

With the understanding that Brain drain can be generated by outbound study –when graduates stay in the country of study for long, but brain circulation can result from graduates bringing skills, networks and capital home (Department of Home Affairs, 2024b), it would critical to reconsider the mandatory status the temporary graduate (subclass 485) visa to minimise avenue of exploitation. Kenya already has an outsized macroeconomic presence. In 2023, remittances were at an all-time high of US$4.19 billion, and the role of overseas Kenyans in development is therefore of critical significance (Central Bank of Kenya, 2024). Australian returnees make contributions in various ways; in the economic front, they introduce limited technical and managerial expertise in line with Kenya's Big Four-type priorities and the digital, health, and infrastructure agendas.

However, the cost determines who comes back and at what time. Graduates with large debts or low chances of getting post-study work returns sooner than expected before they can amortise their investment with Australian earnings, others stay longer in foreign countries to recover their costs, exacerbating brain drain (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2025; Department of Home Affairs, 2024b).

The risk of uncertainty in policy on caps on work hours, English-language requirements, and graduate visa regimes raises the risk of planning (Study Australia, 2025). At the household level, families tend to sell assets or take costly loans to finance study; when labour-market outcomes are disappointing, repayment burden may postpone business formation or home investment in Kenya, reducing the multiplier impact that skilled return migration typically imposes.

Based literature above, it is evident that policy and practice can skew the balance in favour of developmental gain. To compensate for this Australia and Kenya need to increase focused, bond-based scholarships in shortage areas like nursing, engineering, and TVET teacher training including realistic total fees and OSHC, and incorporate paid industry placements (Simiyu et al., 2023). This bond can reduce brain drain without infringing on the mobility of the graduates.

In addition, both governments may pilot a bi-national graduate bridge to ensure that post-study work rights and employer matching in Australia are aligned to sectoral gaps in Kenya, such that graduates can acquire specific experience required in the Kenyan market before they return. Here, underpayment enforcement should be visible and rapid; the current focus of the Australian Government on the rights of students in the workplace should be combined with the availability of reporting mechanisms and the absence of a visa penalty in the event of exploitation reporting (Berg & Farbenblum, 2020).

Ambition is expensive, but does not have to be extractive. With protective mechanisms against workplace bullying in place, funding is feasible, and channels of skill transfer are deliberate, Kenyan students in Australia would be able to transform the personal investment into national returns. The policy priority is to abandon the simplistic migration control to an integrated education, labour-market, and development policy that transforms the brain-drain risk into a brain circulation at scale.

Edited/ Published By Nehemiah Kipserem MEd-MBA 2025