NATIONAL governments that host the world's three million international students will be expected to grant them wider citizens rights under a proposed global student mobility charter.

A draft charter, based on the UN and International Labour Organisation protocols, is expected to be unveiled at next year's European Association for International Education conference in Copenhagen.

Dennis Murray, from the International Education Association of Australia, which participated in framing the protocol, said overseas students often lived and studied "in a legal limbo". "Their legal status as temporary residents isn't always clear in practice in the context of the labour market, access to accommodation or with political and civic authorities," he said.

The charter will seek to define the legal and moral obligations on the governments of key overseas student host countries, including the US, Britain, Japan, South Korea, South Africa and Australia.

The move follows criticism from Simon Marginson, higher education professor at the University of Melbourne, that the world's growing number of international students are treated as outsiders, and nowhere in English-speaking countries do they enjoy comprehensive human rights in local law.

Mr Murray said the charter gained further impetus at a conference in Nantes, France, a few weeks ago after it emerged as an idea following talks between Australian and European education leaders at a Gold Coast conference earlier this year.

"Australia is not atypical when it comes to discussion about multiculturalism, racism and international education," Mr Murray said.

Professor Marginson told the HES in April that the Australian government should negotiate "international student compacts" as a first step to better protect all overseas students.

The quasi-contractual compacts would be negotiated bilaterally with key source countries and give safeguards about student security, educational entitlements and other rights beyond consumer protection, he said.

Mr Murray said framers of the charter were under no illusions about the challenge. "International students are temporary residents for an extended period. It's legally and politically complicated. The global student mobility charter must be more than a motherhood statement, it needs to have practical effect."

IEAA president Stephen Connelly will present an update on the development of the charter at the Australian International Education conference in Sydney next week.