Australia said on Monday it had more than doubled the visa fee for international students, the latest move by the government to rein in record migration that has intensified pressure on an already tight housing market.
From July 1, the international student visa fee has risen to A$1,600 ($1,068) from A$710, while visitor visa holders and students with temporary graduate visas are banned from applying onshore for a student visa.
"The changes coming into force today will help restore integrity to our international education system, and create a migration system which is fairer, smaller and better able to deliver for Australia," Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said in a statement.
Official data released in March showed net immigration rose 60% to a record 548,800 people in the year to Sept 30, 2023.
The rise in fees makes applying for a student visa for Australia far more expensive than in competing countries like the U.S. and Canada, where they cost about $185 and C$150 ($110) respectively.
The government said it was also closing loopholes in visa rules that allowed foreign students to continuously extend their stay in Australia, after the number of students on a second or subsequent student visa spiked by over 30% to more than 150,000 in 2022–23.
The latest move follows a raft of actions since late last year to tighten the student visa rules as the lifting of COVID-19 curbs in 2022 boosted annual migration to record levels.
English language requirements were tightened in March, while the amount of savings international students need to get a visa was raised in May to A$29,710 ($19,823) from A$24,505, the second increase in about seven months.
Universities Australia CEO Luke Sheehy said the government's continued policy pressure on the sector would put the country's position of strength at risk.
"This is not good for our economy or our universities, both of which rely heavily on international student fees," Sheehy said in an emailed response.
International education is one of Australia's largest export industries and was worth A$36.4 billion to the economy in the 2022-2023 financial year.
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
22 Comments
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deanzaZZR
Too many Chinese 5th column elements it would seem.
Coulda been
The problem has arisen due to the floodgates being opened to students (primarily South Asian countries) whose primary intention is to obtain permanent residency. Additionally, Aust. universities need to rethink their renumeration of senior figures whose salaries do not reflect productivity. In the current era of wokism and political correctness, they have blurred vision as to what unis are there for.
2020hindsights
Coulda been
And how is that a problem?
quercetum
*Beijing offers Aussies 15 days of visa free travel
*Tariffs on Australian wine abolished
*Xi Jinping tells Anthony Albanese China-Australia ties are now ‘on the right path’
*Let's work on the lobster ban.
caroti
Japan would looooove to have this problem of too many talented foreign students and potential skilled workers.
Alas ..
Matt
The xenophobes win again.
John-San
The Australian governments welcomes cash up students because this is what it is meant to achieve. What I can see happening and its well within the law. I see wealthy parents of cash up students buying housing/aparto and securing a housing for their children then selling once the student finished his education. Australia can,t not afford to decease it intake of good qualified workers from oversea. Yes there a housing problem but in real term that is a short term problem that can easy be fixed. Shortage of skilled workers to replace the retiring baby boomer is a long term problem with sign of this showing now in the health and service industries today.
MilesTeg
Migrants and immigration illegals don't always equate to foreign students. Yes there are some who overstay illegally after they finish their studies but most return to their home countries to look for a job or apply for a job in Australia and hope to get a work visa. Someone who spends $ thousands on education aren't likely going to stay illegally to do manual labour. They're cracking down on visa loopholes extensions which will help reduce those stay for unclear reasons.
It's the typical knee jerk reaction to blame all a country's problems on illegals and migrants. If you can't find a decent job, it probably has more to do with what you did or didn't do and not blame the illegal or migrant. Chances are locals would never do the work that illegals and migrants do cause they think they're too good for those jobs.
Trying to connect it with the housing situation is even more laughable because in the vast majority of cases it's an Australian owner/citizen who sells their property to a foreigner. Or it's a case of supply vs. demand. Most foreign students aren't buyers either, they're renters.
Peter14
The main problem is lack of housing for everyone, citizens and students alike, driving up rental prices for everyone in the rental market. Add the colapse of a number of home construction companies over the last few years and you end up where we are now with a severe housing shortage.
As someone that rents, the cost has risen sharply with inflation and the shortage of properties making it worse. This is one government solution to the crisis. More and better solutions are still needed.
JeffLee
yeah it would be if that was what most of the critics are doing. They're not. They're the blaming the policy and the those who made it -- who are the govt.
Canada is in a very similar situation, and Trudeau has had to put big limits on quotas and restrict students' permitted working hours after a strong backlash concerning a dire housing squeeze and employment.
Clearly, it's a very bad policy. And, no, criticizing flawed public policy does not make people racist or xenophobic. It's actually essential in a healthy democracy. sorry you don't like it.
konjo4u
Sadly, it is the ruling classes in countries like China and other authoritarian states that can afford to pay those fees no matter how high they go.
MilesTeg
I lived in Australia for three years and believe me that many common folk blame outsiders for many of their problems regardless if it's clearly gov't policy. If having to choose to blame their own gov'ts versus 'outsiders' the majority are going to blame the outsiders. When things get economically difficult due to gov't decisions or global issues, there are a lot of people who blame outsiders first and foremost. Being a Canadian I've seen it firsthand myself. This isn't a part of a healthy democracy.
Many Australians blame the Chinese for buying up all their properties, inability to buy a home, or even rent. They don't give a damn about their own gov't policies that affect supply & demand or inflation. You don't know much about human behavior do you. Do you think this recent anti-immigrant wave is based on a rational look at their own gov'ts? Most of the time when they do blame the gov't, it's just partisan politics. If the party they prefer and support were in power, they wouldn't blame them at all. They'd blame the outsiders and the other party not the gov't as a whole.
Jim
This is a huge mistake from the current Australian Government to target foreign students because these students in reality contributed very well towards the economy. These foreign students did part time jobs in Australia to help improve the labor shortage situation. Australia has severe labor shortage problems in all areas! Furthermore these students after graduating from Australian Universities and colleges entered proper work sectors and paid taxes, social insurance and contributes towards society as a whole.
The Australian Government should have targeted illegal entries, overstayers and uneducated people trying to enter Australia as they don’t contribute anything towards the economy, don’t pay taxes or social security and led to increase in crime!
The expensive housing issue which comes up every now and then is just ironic because Australia has so much space and empty land everywhere that they could easily make more apartment complexes and houses to make the housing cost lower. But real estate and construction companies tried to manipulate the housing market for their own benefit and didn’t do that so that they could make more profit by higher rents and higher house selling prices.
In the end, many Australian Universities, technical colleges will also suffer and collapse without foreign students as the Universities income will fall below its operating costs!
GBR48
Xenophobia never ends well.
The UK government are doing the same thing - reducing foreign students. But those students were subsidising the domestic students, so now UK uni funding is broken, departments are closing, courses are being axed and academics are being fired. That is costing domestic students their chance of a degree.
With the UK and Aussie unis being downgraded, Japan has an opportunity to get more of its unis up the league table.
Mr Kipling
Not wanting your country and it's culture swamped with those from a different and often incompatible culture does not make you a xenophobe.
TokyoLiving
Again, their country, their rules..
kaimycahl
@MilesTeg Pick a side you disagree with a point and then all in one sentence you agreed with it. "Migrants and immigration illegals don't always equate to foreign students. Yes there are some who overstay illegally after they finish their studies but most return to their home countries to look for a job or apply for a job in Australia and hope to get a work visa. Someone who spends $ thousands on education aren't likely going to stay illegally to do manual labour. You would be surprised there are migrants and illegals right now in the US with PHd those who overstayed their visa and those who migrated to the US just because they refuse to live or go back to the country's they came from they have education and would gladly take a job doing manual labor or work under table. Its not a "so call typical knee jerk reaction to blame all a country's problems on illegals and migrants". ITS A KNOWN FACT and those who make money off of these people refuse to acknowledge it and accept the fact that they do take away jobs regardless if it is a shi*t job its still a job they filled. When they do come over to a country and overstay they have to live somewhere so therefore if they do get an apartment it is one that a citizen of the country could not get and once they come in numbers the demand for housing goes up which forces owners to go up on rents. LMFAO and you had the nerve to talk about "Supply and Demand" I suggest you pull out your ECON 100 book. There is no such think as a good job or a bad job. A job is a job and one that has to get done. Yes if a citizen owns a home he has the right to sell it to a citizen or a foreigner and if the foreigner is coming their with cash and paying above the demand price it does effect ordinary citizens because it sets a precedence for future sells. Illegal immigration and immigration can have varied effects on the citizens of a country, and these effects can be positive, negative, or neutral depending on numerous factors including the country's economic conditions, immigration policies, and social dynamics. The true impact of immigration, including illegal immigration, depends largely on how well the process is managed, the integration policies in place, and the capacity of the country to absorb and benefit from new arrivals. Effective policies can mitigate negative impacts and amplify positive contributions, fostering a more inclusive and dynamic society. Again it depends on HOW WELL THE PROCESS IS BEING MANAGED and in most cases it is out of control!!!
Migrants and immigration illegals don't always equate to foreign students. Yes there are some who overstay illegally after they finish their studies but most return to their home countries to look for a job or apply for a job in Australia and hope to get a work visa. Someone who spends $ thousands on education aren't likely going to stay illegally to do manual labour. They're cracking down on visa loopholes extensions which will help reduce those stay for unclear reasons.
It's the typical knee jerk reaction to blame all a country's problems on illegals and migrants. If you can't find a decent job, it probably has more to do with what you did or didn't do and not blame the illegal or migrant. Chances are locals would never do the work that illegals and migrants do cause they think they're too good for those jobs.
Trying to connect it with the housing situation is even more laughable because in the vast majority of cases it's an Australian owner/citizen who sells their property to a foreigner. Or it's a case of supply vs. demand. Most foreign students aren't buyers either, they're renters.
PTownsend
That reaction is reinforced by media, especially outlets controlled by a former? Australian (who knows which country he claims to be part of) who has switched passports and national allegiances several times. But he has gained great wealth and influence pushing 'others' as the root of most problems, sadly a certain proportion of the population, people I've never heard called 'reasonable' believe him. By stoking ethnic fires and further diving people, he and media owners like him are aiding Russia and China while weakening the countries that have given him passports.
John-San
The Pollies have design this continuing shortage of housing. Show me an Australian politician that has not invested in property and I show you a lier. Any Aussie investing in property get a tax brake. Until this tax brake is abolished this housing shortage will continue. Shortage means demand means bigger profits. Until they disallowed pollies from investing in property this shortage will continue