Education Minister to Cap Volume of International Students Coming into Australia

Students walk around Sydney University in Sydney, Australia, on April 6, 2016. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

The education minister will have new powers to curb foreign student numbers at Australian universities from next week, in a move put forward by the Albanese Labor government to help stabilise foreign migration numbers, and cut back on “shonky” providers.

The legislation will allow the minister to set an allocation for the maximum number of new international student enrolments education providers can offer.

For vocational education, these allocations will be set based on advice from the minister for skills and training.

Education Minister Jason Clare’s office did not comment on what would be an ideal quota of students, or how much current intakes could be reduced.

According to the Australian government’s education department, there were 662,895 foreign students in Australia during the January to February 2024 period.

Of those, the greatest number came overwhelmingly from China, with 145,720 students on Australian shores.

Indian students made up the second-highest group, with 109,989 students.

Numbers then drop to 53,294 from Nepal, with even fewer from other nations.

In comparison, some countries, such as Georgia, have only five students in the nation.

Cracking Down on Education Agents

The incoming legislation would also give the minister additional powers to prevent education providers from owning education agencies, and to pause applications for registration from new international education providers and new courses for up to 12 months.

New providers seeking registration would also be required to demonstrate a proven record of high-quality educational services to domestic students, before they are allowed to recruit from overseas.

The minister will also be able to cancel dormant provider registrations to prevent them being used as a market entry tool by unscrupulous actors, and prevent providers under serious regulatory investigation from recruiting new international students.

The sharing of data relating to education agents is set to be improved.

In addition, the government will prohibit agent commissions on student transfers between providers to remove incentives for “poaching” students.

The announcement came amid the release of a draft of the International Education and Skills Strategic Framework on May 13.

If universities wish to enrol international students above the set limit, they will be required to establish an additional, new supply of purpose-built student accommodation to free up pressure on the rental market.

People walk past signage for RMIT university in Melbourne, Australia, on June 10, 2020. William West/AFP via Getty Images

Minister’s Comments

Mr. Clare said the new legislation was imperative in helping curb dodgy practices across the sector.

“Our international education sector is incredibly important to our country,” he said in a statement.

“International students are back but so are the shonks seeking to take advantage of them.

“These reforms are designed to ensure the integrity, quality and ongoing sustainability of this vitally important sector.”

Mr. Clare said the new framework would ensure the international education sector was both more sustainable.

Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil commented on the changes in a statement, saying international education was a huge asset for the nation, but only when it worked in Australia’s favour.

“Last year, our government adopted a strategy to deliver a smaller, more strategic migration system, and these announcements today take a big step toward that goal,” she said.

“With international student visa grants back to pre-pandemic levels, the focus now shifts to ensuring numbers in the sector are managed more strategically over the long-term.”

Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor mirrored Mr Clare’s concerns about dodgy education providers.

“We are focused on ensuring our VET sector is safe, welcoming and supportive for international students and this is the next step the Albanese government is taking to strengthen integrity and sustainability in international education,” he said.

“Because there is no place for dodgy operators who undermine the strong reputation of the sector, we are making it tougher for bottom-feeders to take advantage of international students for a quick buck.”

Group of Eight Backs Limit

The Group of Eight (Go8), which educates one in three international students said the organisation backed moves to bring back legitimacy to the industry.

“The education minister has acknowledged the importance of the sector and the need to ensure quality and sustainability of the sector,” Go8 Chief Executive Vicki Thomson said in a statement.

“Given that importance, any mix of policy settings must be considered, and nuanced,” she said.

“If the problems are neither simple nor one-dimensional, then the solutions won’t be either.

“While pressures are building in Sydney and Melbourne, the situation in other parts of Australia look quite different. Adelaide, for example, needs more international students to meet its workforce commitments around strategic projects ...”

International Education Association of Australia CEO Phil Honeywood told ABC News Breakfast that educational providers needed clarity to know what planning levels were in mind, AAP reported.

“We’re worried that we’re going to have policy overreach where too much, too quick is going to really damage Austrlaia’s reputation as a welcoming, safe, world-class study destination,” he said.

Mr Honeywood said foreign student income was important for universities who had suffered from government cuts.

Government Moving to Slow Down Migration

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2022-23, the number of all migrant arrivals in Australia increased to 737,000, up from 427,000 the year before—an annual increase of 73 percent.

Late last year, the Labor government released a new migration strategy, focusing on decreasing migration to Australia.

The government stated in documents relating to the new strategy that the outgoing migration system was “broken,” and vowed to adopt a new system that would return migration levels “back to normal” and focus more on skills that could benefit the nation.