STATES have become the battleground for international students' rights, with Queensland's sudden termination of school tuition fee exemptions merely the latest example of a state-sponsored "cash cow" approach.

Financially anorexic state government departments across the country have targeted overseas students to help plug budget holes, with no consideration of the big-picture impact on an industry that's among their biggest export earners.

Transport concessions have long been a flashpoint for international students, with NSW and Victoria denying them the discounts available to the domestic students that their hefty fees subsidise.

But in December, the ACT of all places was forced to scuttle a hastily sketched plan that would have made it the only jurisdiction to deny transport concessions to students - both international and domestic - at vocational colleges.

This approach had been dreamed up by the territory's public transport provider, ACTION, even though ACT Community Services Minister Joy Burch had publicly agitated for nationally consistent public transport concession rules.

Health is arguably a more serious arena of inequity, with agencies in Victoria, Queensland and probably other states systematically refusing international students non-emergency services at public hospitals - even though they have private health insurance.

This approach has distressed international students and in some cases put them at risk.

In November The Australian revealed that the wife of a Malaysian PhD student gave birth in a Melbourne carpark after five public hospitals refused to admit her for obstetrics services.

Now, schooling for dependants appears to be the latest contested service. Middle-Eastern postgraduate students at Queensland universities have suddenly been whacked with charges that could amount to tens of thousands of dollars.

There's a valid debate around the extent to which public services should be subsidised for overseas students. But it's unjust and absurd to suddenly slug them with enormous fees that they've had no opportunity to plan for.

States that do so may come off second best, with government services and dependents' rights now an important part of state marketing packages.

Lifestyle, cost and quality are no longer enough, as the global competition heats up for internationally mobile students.

The school tuition fee issue illustrates the need for national consistency in the public services available to international students, supported right across governments.

A 2008 House of Representatives inquiry into research training pushed for a national public school fee exemption policy for dependents of international students. But that's far from what we've got.

Most jurisdictions exempt the children of international PhD students, but not necessarily Victoria or the territories. The ACT apparently provides no exemptions. University of Queensland deputy vice-chancellor Anna Ciccarelli says the piecemeal approach leaves such schemes prey to "survival" manoeuvres by cash-strapped departments.

Dr Ciccarelli says international students will continue to be targeted unless support programs are backed by whole-of-government policies.