Australia tightens foreign student entries in migration reform

Australia announced Tuesday that it would limit international enrolments at 270,000 for 2025, with the aim to curb surging home rental prices linked to record migration, Reuters reported.

The move is part of a series of measures introduced since last year to phase out COVID-19-era concessions for foreign students and workers in Australia.

These concessions had allowed businesses in the country to hire locally due to strict border controls that prevented the entry of overseas workers.

"There's about 10% more international students in our universities today than before the pandemic and about 50% more in our private vocational and training providers," Education Minister Jason Clare told a press conference.

The reforms are designed to make the international student sector better and fairer, and this will set it up on a more sustainable footing going forward, Clare said.

Australia's international education industry, worth A$36.4 billion in 2022-2023, is facing concerns from voters due to large influxes of foreign students and workers, putting pressure on the housing market and making immigration a potential major battleground in the upcoming election.

Net immigration hit a record high in the year to Sept. 30, 2023, surging 60% to a record 548,800, higher than the 518,000 people in the year ending June 2023.

Australia boosted its annual migration numbers in 2022 to help businesses recruit staff to fill shortages after the COVID-19 pandemic brought strict border controls, and kept foreign students and workers out for nearly two years.

The record migration — driven by students from India, China and Philippines — has expanded labour supply and restrained wage pressures, but it exacerbated an already tight housing market.

In a bid to contain the surge in migration, the government last month more than doubled the visa fee for foreign students and pledged to close loopholes in rules that allowed them to continuously extend their stay.