With the Australian federal election approaching, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has ramped up his plan to reduce international students in Higher Education and Vocational Education Training (VET).
In the past, Dutton has criticised the amount of international students in Australia as a key contributing factor to the housing crisis and suggested a nationwide cap.
With the election looming, the Coalition has attached some numbers to their plan, promising to reduce international student commencements at public universities by at least 30,000 per year.
“In some courses at Australian universities, up to 80 percent of students are international students,” Dutton said in a joint media release.
“The Coalition believes in a sensible and managed migration program that is in line with our capacity to adequately provide for infrastructure and housing.
“We will not allow high migration settings to erode living standards, overburden our infrastructure and exacerbate housing shortages in our communities.”
The Coalition is promising caps of 115,000 international student commencements at public universities and 125,000 in the VET, private university, and non-university higher education sectors.
In 2023, around 207,000 international students commenced study at a higher education institution in Australia and almost 190,000 commenced in the VET sector.
The Coalition argue their plan will result in a reduction of over 80,000 annual overseas student commencements compared to 2023.
It comes after they previously criticised the Labor government for pledging to cap international students at 270,000 a year.
“These caps that the government want to place on international students are just part of a very piecemeal approach really does nothing to address the structural problems,” opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume told ABC Radio in 2024.
Percentage Cap
To achieve their promises, the Coalition plan to apply a percentage cap of around 25 percent on the share of new foreign commencements at public universities starting from 2026.The Coalition said an exact cap would be determined in government after consideration of the latest data and consultation with the sector.
“Based on 2023 enrolments data, this is expected to overwhelmingly affect metropolitan, rather than regional universities, where pressure on housing and infrastructure is most acute,” they said.
The reduction would mainly impact Group 8 universities, which are research-intensive and focused on developing international alliances and research partnerships.
The Group 8 universities include Melbourne University, Australian National University, Sydney University, Queensland University, Western Australia University, Adelaide University, Monash University, and UNSW Sydney.
Group 8 universities have large international student cohorts, together constituting a population of 160,000 students from around 200 countries.
Dutton said these institutions “have admitted excessive numbers of international students.”
The Coalition said it would also increase the student visa application charge to $5,000 for Group 8 universities and $2,500 for other international students.
Additionally, an extra charge of $2,500 will be introduced for students who change education providers.
The Coalition also said it would review Temporary Graduate Visas to address the misuse of post-study work arrangments to gain access to the Australian labour market as a pathway to permanent migration.
