What Australia’s new cap on number of international students means; its possible impact on Indians

Here is what this means, and how it will impact Indians.

What the 2025 cap entails

Of the maximum 2.7 lakh new international students who will be admitted in 2025, publicly funded universities will admit 1.45 lakh students, maintaining the 2023 levels in terms of admissions. The number of new intakes will go down elsewhere — the vocational education and training (VET) sector will enroll 95,000 new students, while other universities and non-university providers will see their intake capped at 30,000.

According to the Australia’s Education Department, 5.61 lakh international students were admitted in 2023, 3.88 lakh in 2022, 2.82 lakh in 2021, 3.96 lakh in 2020, and 5.19 lakh in 2019. Moreover, between January and May 2024, the total commencements has been around 2.89 lakhs — the highest on record for this period, and 16% higher than the corresponding period in 2019. Another intake of students in November is pending, and might see the total number of admissions balloon to even higher than in 2023.

Thus, the student intake in Australia in 2025 will be the lowest in the past five years — and by a lot, especially if one keeps in mind that the Covid-19 pandemic would have depressed admissions between 2020 to as late as 2022.

Some categories of students are, however, excluded from the cap. These include school students, those pursuing research degrees, students undertaking standalone English language courses (ELICOS), non-award students, government-sponsored scholars, students that are part of an Australian transnational education arrangement or twinning arrangement, key partner foreign government scholarship holders, and students from the Asia Pacific and Timor Leste.

Cap comes after visa fee hike

From July 1, 2024 onwards, Australia more than doubled its visa processing fee for international students from AUD 710 to AUD 1,600 (as of exchange rate on August 29, Rs 40,524 to Rs 91,321). This was the steepest hike in the past five years.

The visa application fee in 2020-21 was AUD 620, which was increased to AUD 630 in 2021-22 and, further to 650 AUD in 2022-23. It had climbed to AUD 710 in 2023-24.

Australia’s visa-processing fee for international students is the highest when it comes to popular study destinations for Indians. Gaurav Chaudhary, a Ludhiana based immigration consultant, said that the Canadian student visa costs around the equivalent of AUD 170, the US student visa costs AUD 290, the New Zealand student visa costs AUD 345, and the UK student visa costs AUD 940.

Lose-lose for students, universities

The capping will decrease the number of international applicants to Australian colleges and universities, just like they have done in Canada after it introduced its own caps. The number of Indian students heading to Australia will go down, and shrink the business of immigration in India, Chaudhary noted.

And this comes on the back of moves by the Australian government to curb migration into the country over the past six months or so. Beginning on January 1 this year, Australia had introduced higher IELTS band score requirements, and the Genuine Student Test for applicants.

Currently, Australia is home to over 7 lakh overseas students, many of whom tend to prolong their stay in the country by enrolling into various courses, one after another, while they apply for permanent residency (PR). The government’s recent changes might be an attempt to “fix the country’s migration system”, consultants in India feel.

At the same time, universities too might be adversely impacted. The Group of Eight (Go8) universities in Australia, a group of Australia’s top research-intensive universities, has termed the capping as “bad policy”.