Australia yesterday said that it would limit the enrollment number of new international students at 270,000 for next year, as the government looks to rein in record migration that has contributed to a spike in home rental prices.
The decision follows a raft of actions since last year to end COVID-19-era concessions for foreign students and workers in Australia that helped businesses recruit staff locally while strict border controls kept overseas workers out.
“There’s about 10 percent more international students in our universities today than before the pandemic, and about 50 percent more in our private vocational and training providers,” Australian Minister for Education Jason Clare told a news conference.
Photo: Reuters
New international student enrollments would be capped at 145,000 for universities, which is about last year’s levels, and 95,000 for practical and skills-based courses.
Universities Australia said the government move would “apply a handbrake” to the sector.
“We acknowledge the government’s right to control migration numbers, but this should not be done at the expense of any one sector, particularly one as economically important as education,” Universities Australia chair professor David Lloyd said in a statement.
International education, Australia’s fourth-biggest export after iron ore, gas and coal, brought A$36.4 billion (US$24.7 billion) to the economy in the 2022-2023 financial year, but polls have showed voters are concerned about large influxes of foreign students and workers putting excess pressure on the housing market, making immigration one of the potential major battlegrounds in an election less than an year away.
Net immigration hit a record high in the year to Sept. 30 last year, surging 60 percent to a record 548,800, mostly driven by students from India, China and the Philippines.
In a bid to contain the surge in migration, the government last month more than doubled the visa fee for foreign students.
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