Education Minister Jason Clare has announced a cap of new 270,000 international student enrolments in 2025 as part of the government’s reforms to rein in the soaring numbers of overseas students.
The context: Clare has been considering a cap on international students with the number growing from 521,831 two years ago to 810,960 in the year to May 2024.
The government currently has legislation before parliament which would enable caps on the number of international students at educational institutions in Australia including universities, TAFEs and private colleges.
n a statement released on Tuesday the education minister, Jason Clare, revealed the details of the proposed national planning level, which would pare university enrolments back to 145,000, or around their 2023 levels.
Under the reforms private universities and non-university higher education providers will be able to enroll 30,000 new international students in 2025; while vocational education and training providers will be limited to just 95,000.
Clare said that ministerial direction 107, a regulation enacted in December 2023 giving priority to students applying to low-risk institutions, had proven to be a “pretty blunt instrument”.
“It has meant a few universities have got a lot more international students this year than they did last year,” he said.
While “a lot of universities have got a lot less”, he said, citing Newcastle, Wollongong, Griffith, Charles Darwin and La Trobe universities as those who had been “bearing the brunt of this”.
