DESPITE much "window-dressing" about the overseas student issue, nothing has been done to improve relations with the Australian community, higher education analyst Simon Marginson warned this week.

Shonky colleges can be fixed within the existing regulatory framework, but student safety goes to the heart of relations with the Australian community, the Melbourne University professor of higher education said.

Extra policing in Melbourne's western suburbs is light-on, and there's been a failure to properly tackle English language standards, despite the desire of international students to learn.

"Nothing has been done at a policy level to improve relations between local and international students, the number of international research scholarships remains low and we are uncompetitive in the global doctoral market."

Some 16 federal, state and industry taskforces and committees have sprung up in response to the crisis. But Marginson warned that the crisis could not be fixed within the overseas student act and an imaginative response was needed.