The Government has announced it plans to have international student enrolments capped to 270,000 a year.
Education Minister Jason Clare said universities and TAFEs will be able to enrol more international students if they build extra student accommodation.
The Government wants its proposed legislation, which still needs to pass Parliament, to come into effect by January 2025.
International students
In the year to May, there were more than 850,000 international students enrolled in Australia.
International education is one of Australia’s largest exports, worth $36.4 billion in the 2022/23 financial year.
The Government flagged earlier this year it wanted to limit the number of international students as part of a broader effort to reduce the rate of migration.
Student caps
In a joint statement today, the Federal Ministers for Education, Immigration, and Skills laid out plans to cap international enrolments at unis and TAFEs at 270,000 in 2025.
The Ministers said the cap will bring international student figures back to “pre-pandemic levels,” and be updated every year.
The cap won’t affect international students attending primary or high school. Students on Government scholarships, from the Pacific or Timor-Leste, or enrolled in some Masters and PhD courses will also be exempt.
2025 student caps
Education Minister Jason Clare confirmed individual universities will have specific caps, which are not yet publicly available.
Housing
The Government said it “will encourage universities to create new supplies of student housing to benefit both domestic and international students”.
Clare said universities will get “incentives” to build more student accommodation, but did not provide further detail.
The International Education Association of Australia has previously criticised this move, saying state governments and local councils are responsible for housing approvals.
What next?
The cap will need to pass through Parliament.
The Government has a majority in the House of Representatives but will need support from either the Coalition, or the Greens and some independents, to pass the Senate.
Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson and Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan said: “While the Coalition welcomes student caps, we will examine the detail of today’s announcement.“
Reaction
Chair of Universities Australia Professor David Lloyd described the proposed cap as a “handbrake to Australia’s second biggest export industry.”
“There will also be significant flow-on effects for other sectors of the economy that rely heavily on international students,” he said.
The National Tertiary Education Union called on the Government to protect jobs in the sector.
