Australia To Cut Down Foreign Student Intake As A Bid To Curb Migration (image @ Pixabay)

Australia is planning to limit the number of foreign students. By 2025, the figure will be reduced to 270,000, from nearly 600,000 student visas that were granted in fiscal year 2023. The new decision is part of the migration crackdown. Under the policy, the government will cap new international students at 145,000 for universities and 95,000 for the skills training sector, said Education Minister Jason Clare.

Universities in the country has repeatedly warned that any moves to control the enrolment of foreign students could damage the lucrative tertiary education industry.

There will be an overall 15 percent increase in students allowed for universities, and 20 percent reduction in students allowed to vocational colleges, said the minister. The Australian government is writing to individual universities to inform them of their caps.

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“This is an important part of our economy, no doubt about it. That hasn’t changed. But as students have come back, it has put pressure on the reputation of the sector”, Clare said while speaking to reporters in Sydney.

In a statement released, the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia said that universities needed more information about the changes, saying the announcement “creates more questions than answers”.

Australia is the latest in the list of countries to crack down on international students over migration concerns, with Canada, the Netherlands and the UK implementing or considering measures targeting the university sector.

The Australian government has been consulting for months over plans to impose limits on foreign students, part of a broader push to crack down on high post-Covid migration numbers. The surge in migration has coincided with rising voter concerns about a housing squeeze that sent rents soaring, proving politically damaging for the centre-left Labor government.

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The support for migration has went down to its lowest in the last five years, as per poll released by Essential. 42 percent of those surveyed said that migration is having negative effect on the country.

The International students contributed $48 billion ($32.5 billion) to the Australian economy in 2023, making it the country’s top services export. The Property Council of Australia’s Student Accommodation Council said the cap of 270,000 student visas was “sustainable” and the government’s announcement would give investors in student housing the confidence to keep putting money in the sector.