The Coalition has been accused of using the “Donald Trump anti-migration card” with its election policy to slash international students, as the university sector warns it favours the private vocational education and training (VET) sector.
On Sunday, Peter Dutton announced he would reduce the number of international students to 240,000 a year, a reduction of “over 80,000 in annual new overseas student commencements compared with 2023 levels”, he said.
It would mean a cap of 115,000 commencements at publicly funded universities (which include the University of Sydney and University of Melbourne) and 125,000 combined across VET (including Tafe), private universities (including Bond University) and non-universities (including institutes of higher education and colleges).
Dutton also announced all public universities would have their percentage of foreign students capped at “around 25%” – expected to disproportionately impact metropolitan institutions – and that the non-refundable student visa application would be hiked to $2,500, or $5,000 for Group of Eight (Go8) institutions.
Last July, Labor more than doubled the international student visa application fee from $710 to $1,600 – already making it the highest of all global competitor markets.
Speaking on Sunday, Dutton said the international student market was a “great and lucrative” one for universities, adding “they’ve made literally billions of dollars over the last few years”.
“Our problem is that it’s been distortionary to the housing market,” he said – something experts have cast doubt on.
The CEO of the Go8, Vicki Thomson, said the Coalition’s further visa hike “makes no sense on any level”, adding she learned of it in the media.
“It beggars belief that the Coalition would single out the Go8 for extra burden – Australia’s top universities all ranked in the world’s top 100 – that attract the best and brightest minds from our region and around the world,” she said.
“We have been talking about international students as a commodity. This is an isolationist policy agenda that is base politics at its worst.”
The International Education Association of Australia CEO, Phil Honeywood, said there had been no consultation with the sector on the policy proposal, accusing Dutton of playing the “Donald Trump anti-migration card” to voters.
He said providing more punishing targets to publicly funded universities could be seen as “punishment politics”.
“Many Coalition MPs argue public universities don’t support them,” he said.
“Traditionally, the Coalition are more inclined to support independent providers over their public counterparts.”
The former senior immigration official, Abul Rizvi, said caps were an “inherently poor policy tool” which did nothing to address student quality or the quality of courses.
“The biggest change the Coalition is proposing compared to Labor’s student capping plan is an overseas student program that shifts the balance towards the private VET sector,” he said.
“That is the sector with the longest history of rorts and dodgy qualifications.”
In 2023, a parliamentary inquiry heard the VET sector’s reputation would be destroyed if urgent action was not taken to clean up malpractice among international education providers.
The committee heard of private providers working with unregulated international education agents to steal students from prestigious public institutions for massive commissions, sell work visas and open “ghost schools” where students do not attend classes and get handed degrees.
Rizvi said the Coalition’s additional cut of 30,000 international student places impacted publicly funded universities, while the private sector retained the same cap as Labor had proposed at 125,000.
“I don’t know if [Dutton] has an axe to grind with the Go8, but why target the best universities in the country?” he said. “Good students will think ‘I don’t want to go to that chaotic country.’”
The Universities Australia CEO, Luke Sheehy, said the proposed cuts would “take a sledgehammer” to one of Australia’s biggest income generators, estimating a hit to the economy of more than $5bn, including $1.2bn at the Go8.
The Business Council of Australia chief executive, Bran Black, said the Coalition’s proposed 25% foreign student cap would undermine a sector worth more than $50bn annually without improving the housing crisis.
“We’re in a period of higher global and economic uncertainty, and so now is the time to prioritise growing successful sectors, such as education, where we already enjoy a competitive advantage,” he said.
“Enrolments there are now well below the imposed cap, and so Australia following this model risks impacting our fourth-largest export.”
There were 376,731 student visas granted in 2023-24, a decrease of 34.7% compared with the same period in 2022-23 (577,295).
Since 2019, growth in enrolments has been highest in the VET sector (40%) while enrolments in higher education have grown by 13%.
The Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (Iteca) was approached for comment.
