Government insiders and immigration experts have flagged an increase in student visa fees and financial capacity requirements in the budget as a new push to meet ambitious targets to cut migration numbers.
The student visa fee currently sits at $710, already one of the highest in the world, and may be increased to over $1,000. On the higher end, The Grattan Institute has recommended an increase to $2,500, with the excess spent on housing and rent assistance for domestic students.
Some education agents are also reporting the financial capacity requirement is being raised by 20% from $24,505 to $29,710. The figure was already increased by $3,000 last October.
The Department of Education leaked the higher figure on their website on May 2, before retracting it a day later saying it was an “error.”
The requirement is designed to make sure students entering Australia have enough money to pay for their own living expenses while studying full time.
Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neil has cautioned 34 education providers, warning their licences will be terminated within six months if they do not change their operations to comply with the new genuine student test. These providers have had a combined 17,000 visa refusals this year.
According to data provided by the Department of Home Affairs, 68,540 visas were granted in the first quarter of this year, compared to 68,960 in the same period in 2019.
Internally, the government is confident that they are on track to meet their target of 250,000 student visas by July 2025, down from 370,000 last year. The government has argued that more stringent conditions are needed to combat a rise in visa fraud since the border reopened post-COVID.
In response to these changes, education agents and student organisations are warning Australia is becoming a less competitive destination to study.
In an annual report by education agent IDP Australia that surveyed 11,500 prospective, applied, and current international students from 117 countries Australia has fallen from first to second most favourable country to study abroad in.
Only 23% of students now put Australia as number one, with the United States taking top spot.
IDP Education managing director Tennealle O’Shannessy said that the report was evidence government policy was starting to erode trust in the Australian education market.
“As governments in some countries adopt measures which impact international students, demand is inevitably being affected and it is increasingly difficult for driven and bright students across the world to pursue their global goals,” she said.
Sydney University Postgraduate Association (SUPRA) president Weihong Liang told Honi that many students were concerned about the speed of the recent migration reforms.
“The uncertainty in policies has made students keenly feel the shift towards an unwelcoming environment,” he said.
“There has been a sharp increase in tuition fees and living costs. For example, international students often find themselves in a disadvantaged position in the rental market.”
To combat a growing perception in the media that the amount of international students were putting upward pressure on housing prices, the Group of Eight (Go8) has released a report arguing there is no direct causation between foreign student intake and the housing crisis.
The report instead blamed factors ranging from underinvestment and elevated construction costs to weak productivity growth as causing a lack of supply. International students currently make up 4% of the private rental market.
“Any plan to impose a cap on international students as one mechanism to ease housing pressure – especially during a domestic skills crisis – is shortsighted and risks putting a brake on Australia’s economic growth and prosperity,” Go8 CEO Vicki Thompson argued.
University Vice Chancellors have expressed concern that the government crackdown would cost the sector over $300 million.
The full impact of the government’s policies has yet to fully translate to a decline in applications and enrolments in many Australian universities. Some Universities who maintain a lower risk level are still seeing increased numbers of foreign students enrolling.
The University of Sydney confirmed to Honi that enrolments rose in the first semester of 2024 and a spokesperson for UNSW said the university was experiencing significant year on year enrolment and application increases from international students.
A spokesperson for UTS said in a statement that applications for the first four months of 2024 were slightly lower compared to 2023.
The UNSW spokesperson told Honi that “government policy changes which could temper demand for Australian education take time to filter through and we share some concerns raised across the wider international student community and stakeholders around visa delays.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs told Honi that the changes were “in line with the current Government priority to ensure those seeking to enter Australia on a student visa genuinely intend to study, and not use the student visa program as a pathway for employment purposes or remain in Australia indefinitely through non-genuine or fraudulent means.”
“So far, the integrity focused approach is self-regulating normalisation of student visa activity to pre pandemic levels,” the spokesperson said.
The budget will be announced on May 14.
