Australia Caps Int’l Student Numbers at 270k

The number of new international students at Australian publicly funded universities and vocational institutions will be capped at 270,000 for 2025. It comes as part of the government’s efforts to reduce the overall migration.

However, the National Planning Level (NPL) for 2025, which includes the limit on the number of international student enrolments, requires parliamentary approval to enter into force, Erudera.com reports.

“Today the Government has announced that, subject to the passage of legislation before the Parliament, it will set a National Planning Level (NPL) for new international student commencements of 270,000 for calendar year 2025,” Ministers of Education confirmed in a press release on August 27, 2024.

Education Minister Jason Clare said at a news conference on Tuesday that the number of international students at higher education institutions will be set at 175,000 and 95,000 for the vocational sector.

“For publicly funded universities, the managed growth approach, in aggregate, will result in around 145,000 new international student commencements in 2025, which is around 2023 levels. It will also support universities who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and uneven patterns of student returns,” the release said.

Clare said this plan means that in the next year, there will be the same number of international students in university courses as before the pandemic, adding that the number of international students was up 10 percent before COVID-19.

At the same time, the number of new international student commencements at private universities and non-higher education institutions will be limited to 30,000 next year.

Australian authorities announced in May plans to reduce the number of international students following a record high enrolled in 2024. This February, Australia recorded the highest number of international students, 700,000 for the first time, taking migration to record levels.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), net overseas migration was 548,800 people in the year to September 2023, up 60 percent compared to the previous year. ABS explains this was driven by a rise in overseas migration arrivals, most of which on temporary visas for work or study purposes.

International students contributed A$36.4 billion ($24.7 billion) to the Australian economy in the 2022/23 academic year, making international education the fourth largest export in the country during that year. Of the total, $21.8 billion was paid in goods and services and $14.6 billion in tuition fees.

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