Those hundreds of thousands of students bring in about $30 billion to the economy each year, making it Australia's fourth-largest industry according to Bureau of Statistics data.Since the 1980s — when Australia led the way in pioneering international education — successive governments have enjoyed the benefits of these students, who pay up-front sometimes four times what domestic students do for the same degree.
On Tuesday, they finally had some answers: The number of international students able to start their studies next year will beThis will equate to about 7,000 fewer commencements than in pre-pandemic times and about 53,000 less than last year, according to government analysis. But looking at higher education student visa approvals over the past two decades, a more complex picture emerges. While approvals dropped sharply in the 2023-24 financial year, that was coming off a post-COVID spike well above any previous year.
"We did see pretty strong demand and visa grants up to the end of 2023 … that means the number of people in Australia on student visas will still be high even if the number of commencements has dropped this year and will drop again next year," Professor Norton said.Visa approvals are just one part of the puzzle. Another way of measuring the scale of the sector is with enrolment numbers.
The majority were enrolled in higher education institutions, but the highest growth since before the pandemic was in the vocational sector, where enrolments increased by about 50 per cent compared to pre-pandemic numbers. The proposed legislation would give the minister powers to limit the enrolment of overseas students by provider, course, or location and pause the registration of new providers or courses.
In his budget speech, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said international student enrolments had outpaced the creation of dedicated student housing, putting pressure on rents and making "finding housing harder for everyone".found there were just 13 local government areas where international students made up more than 10 per cent of the rental market, while in three-quarters of all government areas they accounted for less than one per cent of renters.
"The reality is international students are not competing for family homes in the suburbs," Ms Brown said. "It's not plausible to say that 900,000 won't have an impact on the accommodation market, but it's hard to quantify exactly what the impact will be."International student fees are the second-largest source of income for tertiary institutions across the board, behind government funding.For example, Torrens University — a private provider in South Australia — received more than half its revenue from international student fees in 2022.