Australia will impose a 145,000 cap on new international student applications by 2025 in addition to increased visa costs and more stringent immigration regulations. Find out more about the modifications here.

For those hoping to study there, Australia’s increasingly stringent admittance policies for foreign students are expected to present greater obstacles. Just 145,000 additional foreign students will be accepted into Australian universities by 2025. This complicates matters further for prospective students, as it coincides with the highest student visa expenses to date.

The government has decided to restrict the number of new international students it accepts to 270,000, a decrease of approximately 20,000, as revealed by the Minister of Education on August 27, 2024. Over 810,000 foreign registrants were enrolled in Australia as of May 2024, a 17% increase from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

This increased cap will allow public universities to admit 145,000 more overseas students in 2025, maintaining enrolment levels from 2023. To restore enrolment to pre-pandemic levels, an extra 95,000 slots will be given to vocational education and training (VET)
programs.

Universities, however, are worried about this cap. In a statement, the University of Melbourne expressed their disapproval of the choice, claiming that they were unaware of the cap until the official announcement was made. The institution said they were not contacted during the process and questioned the government’s procedures. They expect this approach to have unfavorable effects, reducing their number of overseas students from 10,400 to 9,300.

Similar comments were expressed by Monash University, another prestigious institution, which emphasized the value of overseas students to Australia’s academic and wider communities while also stressing their need to comprehend the reasoning behind the decision.

Despite these obstacles, overseas campuses offer options for international students who are committed to obtaining an Australian degree. Numerous Australian colleges have set up campuses overseas, giving students the option to obtain the same degrees without having to travel to Australia. Monash University, for instance, maintains collaborations with universities in China and India in addition to its campuses in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Furthermore, Victoria, a state with a number of prestigious colleges, is looking for creative ways to get around the quota. The state announced incentives in September 2024 for TAFEs and universities to establish campuses abroad in an effort to sustain high enrolment rates for international students. This action is a component of larger attempts to get around the federal government’s student enrolment cap.

The Australian government is implementing these limits as part of a larger plan to lower net migration. Australia saw 528,000 migrants in 2022–2023, a record high. The government is aiming to reduce this number to 260,000 in 2024–2025. Steps taken include raising the amount of money needed for student visas to 1,600 AUD and requiring more evidence of savings.

The environment for overseas students studying in Australia has changed significantly as a result of these adjustments.