Australia to limit international student intake at 270,000 in 2025

 Data show foreign students worth over AUD 42 billion to universities and vocational education centers in 2023.

As it confronts political pressure on immigration, Australia wants to cap the number of international students starting next year, the government announced Tuesday. This will put a brake on a multibillion dollar sector.

At a press conference, Education Minister Jason Clare announced that the number of new international students admitted to universities, colleges, and vocational programs would be capped at 270,000 by 2025.

As a result, certain universities will have a higher enrollment this year than the following. "Some will have less than others," Clare declared when introducing the legislation-required plan.



According to official figures, Australian universities and vocational education institutes valued international students at about AUD42 billion in 2023.



In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, more than 577,000 foreign student permits were issued by Australian authorities.



According to Clare, the adjustment will result in around the same amount of foreign students enrolling in classes for the upcoming year as there was prior to the Covid-19 outbreak.

There will be 145,000 breakdowns by 2025.95,000 for vocational education and training, 30,000 for other higher education providers, and new international students for institutions, according to the government.

The new cap seeks to replace a recent strategy that prioritized students judged to be at low risk of failing to obtain a visa; this policy has benefited highly regarded colleges at the expense of severely slowing down the processing of visas for other institutions.

Universities Australia head David Lloyd stated, "We acknowledge the government's right to control migration numbers but this should not be done at the expense of any one sector, particularly one as economically important as education."

According to Lloyd, almost half of the growth in Australia's economy last year came from the country's second-largest industry, behind mining, which was the country's international student sector.