Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton has said that his government will cut new international student commencements by more than 80,000, also claiming that “there has been a complete racket underway over the last few years where Australians have been locked out of housing”.
As part of the Coalition’s Plan to Tackle Labor’s Housing Crisis, announced this morning, there will be at most 115,000 overseas student commencements each year at publicly funded universities and at most 125,000 in the VET, private university and non-university higher education sectors.
This 240,000 is 30,000 lower than Labor’s proposed cap of 270,000 under the now-failed ESOS Amendment Bill.
Achieving the reduction in public universities will occur through a percentage cap to the share of new international student commencements, to be applied from 2026. The cap is expected to be around 25 per cent, although the Coalition says the figure will be determined once it is in government and has “access to the latest data and in consultation with the sector”.
The 80,000 reduction in new overseas student commencements will be in comparison to 2023 levels, which the Coalition expects “to overwhelmingly affect metropolitan, rather than regional universities, where pressure on housing and infrastructure is most acute”.
“The reduction will particularly affect the Group of Eight universities, which have admitted excessive numbers of international students. We will work with the sector to prevent any unintended consequences for universities with regional campuses.”
The sector responds
The sector has been quick to respond to this morning’s announcement.
Phil Honeywood, Chief Executive Officer, International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) said, “For months now the Opposition has been ducking and weaving on how harsh their version of enrolment caps will be… For the 200,000 plus Australians who work in our beleaguered sector they now at least know where their jobs stand with the alternative government”.
He also said, “Some of the data they have thrown into their narrative is questionable. For example, this morning’s announcement referred to a “65% increase in overseas student numbers under the Government over the last 12 months “. This figure is clearly made up!”.
The Independent Higher Education Australia (IHEA) has criticised the plan to cap international student numbers, saying it has long been opposed to capping international students as a blunt instrument that is unlikely to have the desired economic impacts; instead choking one of Australia’s most prosperous export sectors.
“We are very disappointed the Opposition has opted for Labor flawed student capping regime,” said IHEA Chief Executive Officer, Dr Peter Hendy.
At the time of writing, there has been no response from other peak bodies (maybe they’ve been enjoying a Sunday morning, post daylight savings lie-in and are just awakening to the news). We will report on their responses separately.
Increase in student visa charges
An announcement that will further shock the sector is a plan to more than triple student visa application charges for prospective Group of Eight (Go8) students and an increase for all other students.
Students wanting to apply to Go8 universities are set to be slugged $5000 for their student visa application and the charge for other applicants will be $2500. The non-refundable student visa fee was raised from $710 to $1600 by the Labor Government on 1 July 2024.
“To charge aspirational young people $5000 for a non-refundable student visa sends an appalling message from a supposedly welcoming study destination country.
This measure alone will persuade students to steer away from Australia and apply to much more welcoming nations such as the UK and New Zealand,” said Honeywood.
In a move that is likely designed to address issues in the sector of students transferring from quality providers to low-cost providers onshore, students will be charged a further $2500 to change education providers.
The targeting of prospective Go8 university students for an additional visa charge comes following numerous attacks on these universities by the Coalition throughout the debate in 2024 on the ESOS Amendment Bill. Opposition spokeswoman for education, Senator Sarah Henderson, regularly referred to the “rivers of gold” of the Go8 as well as recounting reports of classes being conducted in Chinese.
Housing
The cut to international students, along with the previously announced 25 per cent cut in permanent migration, will free up nearly 40,000 homes in the first year, according to the Coalition.
“My absolute priority is to get this housing mess sorted out,” Dutton said. “Yes, the G8 have made a lot of money…our problem is that it’s been distortionary to the housing market”.
In response, Honeywood said “they have also consistently provided no analysis of a connection between rent increases and student numbers. Yet the Opposition Leader’s just released announcement highlights this as fact”.
The claim that international students are to blame for increasing rents has most recently been rebutted by researchers at the University of South Australia (UniSA), that found no link between international student numbers and the cost of rent.
The Student Accommodation Council has called for an accommodation guarantee for all first year international students at metropolitan universities instead of a blunt cut to visa numbers.
Student Accommodation Council Executive Director, Torie Brown said “While the evidence has repeatedly shown students are not the cause of the housing crisis, a first year accommodation guarantee would fill existing student-only beds and unlock the development of more student accommodation”.
The Coalition’s announcement will be “a key discussion item at a meeting of the seven peak bodies associated with international education in Canberra this coming week, chaired by the IEAA”, according to Honeywood.
Picture courtesy of Peter Dutton’s X (Twitter) post.
