Australia’s federal government has reaffirmed its decision to impose limits on international student enrolments at universities, with Education Minister Jason Clare recently defending the move as essential for ensuring ‘sustainability’ in the higher education system.
Speaking to Sky News earlier this month, Clare emphasised that while international education remains vital to Australia’s economy and diplomacy, universities must prioritise local students and operate within sustainable limits.
The cap, first announced in August last year, sets an annual national ceiling of 270,000 new international student enrolments for 2025. According to a BBC report, each higher education provider will receive an individual allocation, a measure the government stated is designed to restore migration levels to pre-pandemic norms and alleviate pressure on housing and infrastructure.
According to data cited during the interview earlier, Australia currently hosts about 717,500 international students, 10 per cent more than before the pandemic.
While the cap aims to balance economic benefits with social capacity, the higher education sector has described the policy as overly restrictive.
University groups, particularly those representing the prestigious “sandstone institutions”, have argued that the limits will hurt Australia’s international reputation and cost the economy billions. Sydney University, where international students make up more than half of total enrolments, has been at the centre of this debate.
Economic modelling commissioned by the university earlier this year estimated that the proposed cuts could cost the national economy AUD 4.1 billion and lead to about 22,000 job losses in 2025, the BBC report mentions.
The government insists the policy is not punitive but corrective. Officials argue that the rapid post-pandemic rebound of foreign enrolments, particularly at private vocational colleges, has led to unregulated growth, with some accused of ‘unethical’ practices, including enrolling students without sufficient language skills or academic intent.
The government’s reforms have introduced tougher English language requirements, stricter visa rules for repeat students, and a crackdown on ‘dodgy’ education providers.
At the same time, the housing crisis has emerged as a central justification for the cap. Clare has repeatedly linked universities’ access to higher international enrolment allocations with their capacity to build student accommodation.
“If you want additional international students allocated to your universities,” he told Sky News, “then we need to see evidence of two things.
One, that you’re building more housing because we need more housing. But two, that you’re diversifying so that international students aren’t just coming from one country, but from a number of different countries around the world.”
The minister also pointed out that future allocations would favour regional universities to spread the economic and cultural benefits of international education beyond major cities like Sydney and Melbourne. “We don’t want it just to be the big universities that benefit,” he said. “Smaller regional universities should benefit as well.”
Clare directly addressed criticism over the high proportion of overseas students at Sydney University. When asked whether he believed it was acceptable that more than half of the institution’s enrolments were international, Clare said, “International education is important for Australia.
It provides investment, creates jobs, and helps build our connections to the world. But there’s nothing more important for Australian universities than educating Australians.
That’s why we’ve made it clear that international student numbers must be set at sustainable levels. We reduced them last year, and we want to make sure that future growth happens in a managed way.”
He further underlined the government’s stance that local students must form the majority on campus: “It should be more than 50 per cent of students at universities being local students.”
It’s one of the reasons why we didn’t allocate more international student numbers to Sydney University,” Clare said.
“At the same time, we’re encouraging universities to attract students from across regions like Southeast Asia, where Australia is working to build stronger relationships. International education plays a crucial role in that.”