The Australian government announced on Tuesday it will cap new international student enrolments at universities and vocational education providers at 270,000 in 2025.

The cap would allow 145,000 international student commencements at publicly-funded universities in 2025, 95,000 in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, and 30,000 at other universities and non-university higher education providers.

Minister for Education Jason Clare said that universities would be allowed to enroll 15 per cent more international students than they did in 2019, but that numbers would be cut by 20 per cent for VET providers.

He said that the limits, which are subject to legislation passing parliament, would set international student commencements at about 7,000 below 2019 levels and 53,000 below the 2023 figure.

He added that enrollments would be more evenly distributed across the sector.

`Every university and training provider institution would have its own individual cap based on several factors.

“Which includes recent levels of international student commencements and the concentration of international students in their onshore cohorts.

“Institutions that fail to fill their quota of international students could have the vacancies transferred to other institutions.

“This is about setting up the system in a better and fairer way, so it’s not only a lucky few universities that benefit but the whole sector,” Clare said.

The governing Labor Party announced plans to cap international student numbers in May as part of a broader strategy to cut Australia’s net migration intake from 528,000 in 2022-23 to 260,000 by 2024-25.

In July, the government more than doubled the international student visa application fee from 710 Australian dollars (481.6 U.S. dollars) to 1,600 Australian dollars (1,085.5 U.S. dollars).

Luke Sheehy, chief executive of NGO Universities Australia, told a Senate hearing earlier in August that the proposed cap would cost universities billions of dollars in revenue and put 14,000 jobs at risk.

“International students accounted for more than half of Australia’s gross domestic product growth in almost single-handedly saving the nation from recession,” he said.

According to government figures, international education was worth 47.8 billion Australian dollars (32.4 billion U.S. dollars) to the Australian economy in 2023, making it the country’s fourth-largest export behind iron ore, coal and natural gas. (Xinhua/NAN)

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