Only 270,000 international students will be able to go to Australia next year

Under the policy, the government will cap new international students at 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 move to limit foreign students could damage the lucrative tertiary education industry.

“This is an important part of our economy, no doubt. That hasn’t changed,” Clare told reporters in Sydney after the announcement. “But as students came back, it put pressure on the reputation of the sector.”

Overall, in 2025, there will be about 15 percent more students authorized for universities and 20 percent fewer for vocational colleges, Clare said. The government wrote to individual universities to inform them of their cap on Tuesday.

“To create the impression that this is somehow destroying international education is absolutely and fundamentally wrong,” Clare said. “It’s about making sure we’re setting it up in a sustainable way for the future. We want students to come and learn here.”

Universities Australia president David Lloyd said student caps would put a “handbrake” on the tertiary education sector.

Migration controls should not be imposed “at the expense of any sector, particularly one as economically important as education”, Lloyd added, saying the limits 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, saying the announcement “creates more questions than answers”.

Australia is just the latest country to crack down on international students over migration concerns, with Canada, the Netherlands and the UK all implementing or considering measures targeting the university sector. In Australia, the government has been consulting for months on plans to impose limits on foreign students as part of a wider effort to curb the high number of post-Covid migration. The rise in migration has coincided with growing voter concern about a housing squeeze that has driven up rents, 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 published by Essential on Tuesday, with 42 per cent of those surveyed saying it had a negative effect on the country.

International students will contribute A$48 billion ($32.5 billion) to the Australian economy in 2023, making it the country’s largest service export.

The Property Council of Australia’s Student Accommodation Council said the 270,000 student visa cap is “sustainable” and the government’s announcement will give student housing investors the confidence to continue investing in the sector.