The Australian government will restrict the number of overseas students by using a legal loophole

SINGAPORE: Following opposition politicians’ objection to a prior proposal, local media reported Thursday, December 19, that the Australian federal government would use a legal workaround to restrict the number of overseas students.

Earlier this year, the governing Labor Party introduced a bill that would have allowed the education minister to limit the number of overseas students. However, the Coalition and Greens rejected the bill.

According to ABC News on Thursday, the workaround will give student visa applications first priority until government-set limits for education providers are reached, at which point visa processing would return to a regular priority level.

This level of application processing will take longer.

According to ABC News, the requirements represent 80% of the controls the federal government had hoped to place on education providers. However, the government said that the thresholds were not meant to be interpreted as strict restrictions or quotas on the overall number of visas awarded to providers.

One of Australia’s biggest export sectors is international education, but surveys indicate that Australians are worried about the housing market being overburdened by a significant inflow of foreign workers and students.

After the COVID-19 epidemic brought severe border restrictions and prevented foreign workers and students from entering the country for over two years, Australia increased its yearly migration numbers in 2022 to assist companies in hiring personnel to cover shortages.

Student migration from China, India, and the Philippines has increased the labor pool and reduced wage pressures, but it has also made the already competitive housing market worse.

Labor had anticipated that by restricting the number of overseas students who will begin studying in Australia next year, the number of temporary migrants would return to pre-pandemic levels.

Australia’s opposition parties, the Coalition and Labor, have both stated their desire to reduce net foreign migration.

Regional colleges have criticized the previous order, which was replaced by the current one, which required immigration authorities to give preference to international student applications with offers from low-risk schools, according to media reports.

About 60,000 fewer higher education visas were issued in the 2023–2024 fiscal year than in the previous fiscal year, according to a media report.