Australia to cap foreign student enrollments in migration crackdown By Reuters

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia said on Tuesday it would cap the number of international student enrollments at 270,000 by 2025 as the government seeks to control record migration that has contributed to a surge in house rental prices.

The decision follows a series of moves last year to end the COVID-era concessions for Australian students and foreign workers, which helped companies recruit staff locally, while strict border controls kept workers from overseas increase.

“There are around 10 per cent more international students in our universities today than before the pandemic and around 50 per cent more in our private education and training providers,” Education Minister Jason Clare told a news conference in presser.

The reforms are designed to make the international student sector better and fairer, and this will put it on a more sustainable footing going forward, Clare said.

International education is one of Australia’s largest export industries and was worth A$36.4 billion ($24.7 billion) to the economy in the 2022-2023 financial year.

But polls have shown voters are worried about large influxes of students and foreign workers putting undue pressure on the housing market, making immigration one of the potential major battlegrounds in the election less than a year away.

Net immigration hit a record high in the year to September 30, 2023, rising 60% to a record 548,800, up from 518,000 in the year ending June 2023.

Australia has boosted its annual migration numbers in 2022 to help companies recruit staff to fill shortages after the COVID-19 pandemic brought tight border controls and kept foreign students and workers out for nearly two years.

The record migration – led by students from India, China and the Philippines – has expanded the labor supply and curbed wage pressures, but exacerbated an already tight housing market.

In an attempt to limit the rise in migration, the government last month doubled the visa fee for foreign students and pledged to close loopholes in the rules that allowed them to permanently extend their stay.

($1 = 1.4769 Australian dollars)