Australia will limit how many international students it accepts in an effort to reduce migration to pre-pandemic levels, the BBC reported Tuesday.
One of the world’s largest international education markets, Australia hosted about 717,500 international students this year (in a country with a population of 26 million); in 2025, the government is capping enrollment at 270,000.
Each higher education institution in the country will receive a directive on how many students it’s allowed to host, with the most stringent restrictions placed on vocational and training providers, whose enrollments have grown by 50 percent since before the pandemic. Enrollment at traditional universities grew by 10 percent in the same time frame, according to the BBC.
“Students are back,” said Jason Clare, Australia’s education minister, but so are “people … seeking to exploit this industry to make a quick buck.”
According to the BCC, the Australian government has previously accused some higher education institutions of unethical behavior, including “accepting students without adequate language skills, setting subpar education standards and enrolling people who intend to work instead of study.”
Clare noted that the restrictions would also help alleviate strain on the country’s housing and infrastructure. “These reforms are designed to make it better and fairer, and set it up on a more sustainable footing going forward.”
But higher education leaders aren’t happy about the cap, saying the industry is being used as a scapegoat for Australia’s housing and population worries, the BBC reported. Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Group of Eight, which represents Australia’s leading research-intensive universities, characterized the policy as “economic vandalism” earlier this year.
