Labor’s plan to cap international student enrolments from next year appears doomed after Coalition vows to block
The government’s plan to restrict the number of international students able to enrol from the start of next year appears doomed, with the Coalition and the Greens set to vote against the contentious bill.
Labor hoped to bring temporary migration numbers back to pre-pandemic levels and crack down on dodgy education providers by limiting the number of international students able to start study in Australia to 270,000 next year.
But with just two weeks of parliament left before the January 1 start date, the Coalition said it would oppose the “chaotic and confused” bill that would give the education minister the power to set international student caps.
“The proposed cap in the education bill before parliament will not even touch the sides of this problem,” the Coalition’s education spokesperson Sarah Henderson, Home Affairs spokesperson James Paterson, and Immigration spokesperson Dan Tehan said in a joint statement on Monday.
“We cannot support measures which will only serve to compound this crisis of the government’s making.”
Both major parties have said they want to see a lower Net Overseas Migration, which includes international students. The government said it expects the figure to be 260,000 over the financial year, while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said his party would aim for “about 160,000”.
Education Minister Jason Clare said the Coalition’s decision to block the bill will destroy Mr Dutton’s credibility when it comes to migration.
“Never in my life did I expect to see Peter Dutton in bed with the Greens over migration,” he said.
“You can’t talk tough on immigration and then go soft on this.”
If the bill does not pass the parliament by the end of this month, a controversial regulation known as Ministerial Direction 107 will remain in place.
The direction, which has been in place since December, requires immigration officials to prioritise applications for students with offers from institutions considered lower risk.
In practice, it has meant bigger, more prestigious universities have been able to enrol more international students, while smaller, regional universities have been left worse off.
The sector has been widely critical of Ministerial Direction 107, which it says has already led to tens of thousands fewer higher education visa applications this year.
Before it was clear whether or not the Coalition would oppose the changes, chief executive of Universities Australia Luke Sheehy told the ABC the sector was at a “fork in the road” faced with a “terrible option and a not-so-great option”.
“The longer Ministerial Direction 107 is in the place, the more damage it will do.”
Universities in chaos amid uncertainty
With the bill still before parliament, some universities have proceeded with 2025 enrolments, while others have paused international student applications and opened up waitlists in a bid to avoid going over the indicative caps that had been supplied.
University peak bodies told the ABC that the uncertainty had led to chaos throughout the sector as they worked to finalise their end-of-year budgets.
“There is no certainty at the moment about what’s going to happen and that makes it really difficult for universities to set their budgets,” said Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Group of 8, which represents Australia’s most prestigious universities.
Under the proposed changes, each higher education and vocational provider would be given their own limit on the number of international students they can enrol, based on a formula that takes into account previous levels of international student commencements and the make-up of their student body.
A Labor-led Senate inquiry into the proposed legislation last month recommended that a ministerial power to set the caps down to the course level be scrapped, but that the bill should be passed.
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