Universities face cap in overseas students

Universities will be forced to cap overseas student enrolments as part of Labor’s efforts to ease pressures on Australia’s housing market and slash the migration intake.

The federal government will introduce new legislation to set limits for the maximum number of new international student enrolments.

New laws, set to be introduced this week, would give Education Minister Jason Clare sweeping powers to set the overseas student intake for universities after decades of unprecedented growth,

Currently, about 1400 universities and colleges are registered to enrol international students. As of February 2024, about 703,245 international students were enrolled to study in Australia, compared with 578,930 in 2019.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said universities had agreed to work with the government on the proposed plan. Under the new laws, higher education providers under investigation for serious regulation breaches will be banned from recruiting students from overseas. It will also force newly registered universities and colleges to prove a demonstrated track record of quality course delivery for domestic students before allowing foreign enrolments.

Melbourne’s RMIT University has the highest number of international students in Australia with 26,590 students, followed by Monash University, and Curtin University with 15,000.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the Coalition wanted to see more details on student caps before it backed any changes.