With rumours of possible immigration caps on international student places being discussed in major broadsheets, are we forgetting we already have a cap system in place? It’s called CRICOS.
CRICOS, the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students. In short, each institution that seeks to provide education to international students must be registered on CRICOS.
As part of this registration they must seek an upper limit or capacity of how many international students they can bring to Australia and teach. The number is registered by the provider, across all campuses.
This is our current cap system, we aren’t talking about it, and the numbers may surprise you.
This is all publicly available information and can be found by searching the CRICOS register (best for one-off searches) or to obtain a larger, sector-wide view. Data is available from data.gov.au. Which is where the Koala obtained the following information.
Cap number is growing, not decreasing
Let’s get to it. What’s the magic number? As of 2 April 2024 the current CRICOS cap in total is 1,514,413 international students. That’s up from 2 January 2024 where the total capacity was 1,479,342 and from 3 January, 2023 where it was 1,317,195.
This means we are still 500k and change from reaching the CRICOS capacity cap in this country. This can’t be a good look for the government, which clearly doesn’t understand the relationship between Education and Immigration and, going by the decisions in recent months, possibly never has.
Sector view
Of the 1,514,413 current places available
952,200 (63 per cent) are in the private sector, and
562,213 (37 per cent) are government-based. These are typically Universities and TAFES.
According to international student data pivot tables published by Austrade, year-end 2023 Figures for students show:
973,648 enrolments across the sector (64% of capacity cap allocation)
558,941 Non-Government (59 per cent of capacity cap allocation)
414,707 Government (74 per cent of capacity cap allocation)
Universities
Australia has 37 public Universities and 5 private universities. They account for 515205 (34 per cent) of the current international student capacity. The number across universities varies greatly, with the largest registered capacity being 44,600 at the University of Sydney and the lowest being 276 at the University of Divinity. The University of New England has the smallest registered capacity of government universities at 1282.
The full list can be seen below:
| CRICOS Provider Code | Institution Name | Institution Type | Institution Capacity | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00002J | Macquarie University (Macquarie) | Government | 11500 | IND |
| 00003G | University of New England | Government | 1282 | RUN |
| 00004G | Australian Catholic University Limited | Government | 6400 | IND |
| 00005F | Charles Sturt University (CSU) | Government | 3930 | RUN |
| 00008C | Monash University (Monash) | Government | 40350 | GO8 |
| 00025B | The University of Queensland | Government | 20005 | GO8 |
| 00026A | The University of Sydney | Government | 44600 | GO8 |
| 00098G | The University of New South Wales (UNSW) | Government | 39770 | GO8 |
| 00099F | University of Technology Sydney (UTS) | Government | 16300 | ATN |
| 00102E | University of Wollongong (UoW) | Government | 10000 | IND |
| 00103D | Federation University Australia | Government | 9400 | RUN |
| 00109J | The University of Newcastle (UoN) | Government | 7800 | ATN |
| 00111D | Swinburne University of Technology | Government | 12000 | IND |
| 00113B | Deakin University (Deakin) | Government | 20440 | ATN |
| 00114A | Flinders University | Government | 8370 | IRU |
| 00115M | La Trobe University (La Trobe) | Government | 8905 | IRU |
| 00116K | The University of Melbourne (UniMelb) | Government | 30000 | GO8 |
| 00117J | James Cook University | Government | 4100 | IRU |
| 00120C | Australian National University | Government | 10000 | GO8 |
| 00121B | University of South Australia (UniSA) | Government | 7000 | ATN |
| 00122A | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology | Government | 23020 | ATN |
| 00123M | The University of Adelaide (Adelaide) | Government | 12477 | GO8 |
| 00124K | Victoria University | Government | 5001 | IND |
| 00125J | Murdoch University (Murdoch) | Government | 10000 | IRU |
| 00126G | The University of Western Australia (UWA) | Government | 14000 | GO8 |
| 00212K | University of Canberra | Government | 4179 | IRU |
| 00213J | Queensland University of Technology (QUT) | Government | 14500 | IND |
| 00219C | Central Queensland University | Government | 10165 | RUN |
| 00233E | Griffith University | Government | 11592 | IRU |
| 00244B | University of Southern Queensland | Government | 3800 | RUN |
| 00279B | Edith Cowan University | Government | 8380 | IND |
| 00300K | Charles Darwin University (CDU) | Government | 4999 | IRU |
| 00301J | Curtin University | Government | 15650 | ATN |
| 00586B | University of Tasmania (UTas) | Government | 9493 | IND |
| 00917K | Western Sydney University | Government | 8500 | IRU |
| 01241G | Southern Cross University (SCU) | Government | 11664 | RUN |
| 01595D | University of the Sunshine Coast | Government | 6344 | RUN |
| 02225M | University of Southern Queensland (Sydney) | Government | 1320 | RUN |
| 02475D | Victoria University (BNE and SYD) | Government | 4400 | IND |
| 01032F | The University of Notre Dame Australia | Private | 1300 | Private |
| 03389E | Torrens University Australia Limited | Private | 18388 | Private |
| 02731D | Avondale University | Private | 605 | Private |
| 01037A | University of Divinity | Private | 276 | Private |
| 00017B | Bond University | Private | 3000 | Private |
| 515205 |
Share of CRICOS Capacity Across University Groupings
There has been much discussion about the GO8 Universities and their earnings from international students. The GO8 certainly lead the groupings with capacity registrations.
The mix can be seen here.
It’s all getting a bit out of control
The government continues to want to deal with international education via the immigration portfolio. As The Koala has made the point several times, this is the wrong way to go. By paying closer attention to the mechanism already in place, the government can:
- Control the places available to international students; and
- Clean up the dodgy colleges the Minister for Immigration continues to harp on about
Yes, remember those dodgy colleges and how many? Minister O’Connor made comments back in October of last year when pressed on the number (TKN 3/10/23), saying “Probably more than a dozen, but under 100”.
Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. But we all know this isn’t about executing a policy direction. This is about an election. If Labor continues on this path and is lucky enough to win the next election, it will have bigger issues to deal with.
Tim Dodd from The Australian eloquently sums this up in a story last night (Unis face $500m revenue loss from student visa debacle) “Of course, international students have an impact on the housing market. But they are also an economic driver. Last year the rapid return of international students, and their spending, provided over half of Australia’s sluggish 1.5 per cent GDP growth. If student numbers fall then the effect will be opposite – a contribution to economic contraction.”
