Australia will limit the number of foreign students to 270,000 by 2025 as part of a migration curbing drive.
Under the policy, the government will cap the number of new international students for universities at 145,000 and for the skills training sector at 95,000, Education Minister Jason Clare said on Tuesday. Nearly 600,000 student visas were granted in fiscal year 2023, a significant jump from previous years.
Universities have repeatedly warned that any move to limit foreign students could harm the lucrative tertiary education industry.
“It’s an important part of our economy, there’s no doubt about that. That hasn’t changed,” Clare told reporters in Sydney after the announcement. “But as students are coming back, that’s putting pressure on the reputation of the sector.”
Overall, there will be about 15% more students to enter universities in 2025 and 20% fewer students to enter vocational colleges, Clare said. The government will write to individual universities on Tuesday to inform them of their limits.
“To make the assumption that this is somehow destroying international education is absolutely and fundamentally wrong,” Clare said. “This is about making sure we set it up in a sustainable way for the future. We want students to come and study here.”
Universities Australia president David Lloyd said the student cap would “constrain” the higher education sector.
Lloyd said migration controls “should not be imposed at the expense of any one sector, particularly an economically important sector such as education.” He said these restrictions would harm Australia’s research and development capacity.
The independent Tertiary Education Council Australia said in a statement that universities needed more information about the changes, as the announcement “raises more questions than answers”.
Australia is the latest country to crack down on international students due to migration concerns, with Canada, the Netherlands and the UK all implementing or considering measures targeting the university sector. In Australia, the government has been deliberating for months on plans to impose limits on foreign students, part of a broader effort to crack down on high migration numbers after Covid. The surge in migration coincides with growing concerns among voters about a housing shortage, leading to a surge in rents that proved politically damaging for the centre-left Labor government.
Support for immigration to Australia has fallen to its lowest level in five years, with 42% of those surveyed saying it has had a negative impact on the country, according to a survey released by Essential on Tuesday.
International students contribute A$48 billion ($32.5 billion) to the Australian economy in 2023, making them the country’s top services export.
The Property Council of Australia’s Student Accommodation Council said the 270,000 student visa cap was “sustainable” and the government’s announcement would give investors in the student accommodation sector confidence to put money into the sector.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)