Australian education minister Jason Clare has retained his position in a cabinet reshuffle that has added new responsibilities to his portfolio and created a separate post of assistant minister for international education.

Julian Hill, a former Victorian international education bureaucrat who became co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of International Education after entering politics, will take on the assistant ministry job on top of responsibilities in customs and multicultural affairs.

“International education is such an important export for Australia,” prime minister Anthony Albanese explained in a media conference announcing his new ministry. “This sector is complex. There’s been examples as well of inappropriate activity. It’s important we get it right.”

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy said the role’s creation was welcome “given the sector’s importance to the Australian economy and our relationships with the outside world”. Innovative Research Universities executive director Paul Harris said the appointment augured well for “sustainable growth in international education to benefit students and Australian society”.

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Hill faces likely pressure to shield overseas students – particularly those on exchange or enrolling in English language colleges – from recent planned hikes to visa application fees, while refloating stalled legislation to improve integrity in international education.

Sydney MP Andrew Charlton has also been allocated a new portfolio as assistant minister for science, technology and the digital economy. New South Wales senator Tim Ayres is now senior science and industry minister, displacing Ed Husic who lost his cabinet position in a factional deal.

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Victorian senator Jess Walsh is minister for early childhood education and youth, replacing former academic Anne Aly who has taken over responsibilities for small business, international development and multicultural affairs. Assistant education minister Anthony Chisholm has relinquished that position, instead assuming assistant ministerial oversight of resources.

There has been no change to the key ministries of home affairs and skills, held by Tony Burke and Andrew Giles. Universities Australia said the reappointments provided important “continuity” in an era of reform.

“Minister Clare has been a steadfast advocate for universities,” Sheehy said. “His continued leadership is vital as we work to make our higher education sector stronger.”

Meanwhile, former University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis has resigned from his position as Australia’s chief civil servant and will depart as secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in mid-June.

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“Professor Davis is a man of unique strengths: an intellectual who embraces the practical, an institutionalist who champions reform,” Albanese said. “He worked calmly and steadily to reassert the purpose of the public service. He leaves a great national institution in far better shape than he found it.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com