Australia will limit the number of foreign students to 270,000 by 2025 as part of a crackdown on migration.
Under the policy, the government will limit the number of new international students to 145,000 for universities and 95,000 for the skills training sector, 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 attempt to limit the number of foreign students could damage the lucrative tertiary education sector.
“This is 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 now that students are returning, it is putting pressure on the reputation of the sector.”
Overall, about 15% more students will be admitted to universities and 20% fewer to vocational courses by 2025, Clare said. The government wrote to individual universities on Tuesday to inform them of their ceilings.
“To give the impression that this is somehow destroying international education is absolutely and fundamentally wrong,” Clare said. “It’s about making sure we set it up in a sustainable way for the future. We want students to come and study here.”
David Lloyd, president of Universities Australia, said the student caps would put a “handbrake” on the tertiary education sector.
Migration controls should not be imposed “at the expense of any sector, especially one as economically important as education,” Lloyd added. Lloyd said the restrictions would damage Australia’s research and development capacity.
The Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia said in a statement that universities needed more information about the changes and said the announcement “raises more questions than answers.”
Australia is just the latest country to crack down on international students over migration concerns, with Canada, the Netherlands and Britain all implementing or considering measures targeting the university sector. In Australia, the government has been discussing plans to impose restrictions on foreign students for months, as part of a wider effort to crack down on high post-COVID migration numbers. The surge in migration coincided with voters’ growing concerns about the tight housing market, which sent rents soaring, proving politically damaging for the centre-left Labor government.
Support for migration in Australia has fallen to its lowest level in five years, according to a poll released by Essential Tuesday, with 42% of respondents saying it had a negative effect on the country.
International students contributed A$48 billion ($32.5 billion) to the Australian economy in 2023, making it the country’s top services export.
The Australian Student Accommodation Council’s Property Council said the 270,000 student visa limit was “sustainable” and the government’s announcement would give student housing investors the confidence to continue pouring money into the sector.
