Is limited regulation supporting policy inaction? International student housing in Australia

The international education sector in Australia is subject to significant government policy and regulation, but the effectiveness of interventions in providing for international student well‐being is continually questioned. Housing insecurity is one of the most pressing well‐being issues among students. This paper analyses the effectiveness of existing policy and regulatory instruments in the arena of international student housing, specifically in terms of if, where, and how instruments provide for students’ well‐being. In doing so, we utilise ‘regulation theory’ and ‘policy inaction’ theory, merging consideration of traditional command‐and‐control methods; more persuasive and individualised forms of government oversight; and instances where governments ‘do nothing’ in the face of important societal problems. Interrogating government strategies, policies, and both traditional and softer regulatory instruments at the federal, state, and local government levels, the article finds that, despite extensive apparent policy activity, international student housing is an area of policy inaction. The utility of combining the two central theoretical perspectives stems from: its capacity to expose ‘buck‐passing’ in federal systems such as Australia's, both between levels of government and between the policy domains of international education and housing; its illustration of the need for evidence to inform policy; and its allowance for the identification of neoliberal tendencies towards the ideologically inspired use of markets to usurp and replace government action.

Points for practitioners

Assessing government commitment to a policy area can be facilitated by considering regulatory action/inaction and policy action/inaction together.