Australia foreign student cap causes anxiety at home and abroad

The “dream” of Anannyaa Gupta’s life was to finish her experiments in Australia.

” Their education program is one of the best in the world”, the 21-year-old, from the American town of Hyderabad, explains.

After earning her bachelor’s degree at Melbourne’s Monash University in July, she applied for the connoisseur degree to work as a social worker, a position that Australia is desperate to fill in the face of labor shortages.

” I really want to study around, provide my skills and lead to society”, she says.

However, Ms. Gupta is one of the current and future international students who has been sucked into a panic as a result of the administration’s plan to reduce undergraduate enrollment abroad.

The new cap- which would significantly reduce new attendance- is needed to make the A$ 47.8bn ( £24.6bn,$ 32bn ) education sector more sustainable, the government says.

It is the most contentious of new changes that have also made applicants for student visas subject to stricter English language requirements and increased attention of those pursuing further education. Application fees for non-refundable visas have likewise doubled.

However, the market and its backers say they were n’t properly consulted, and that the modifications could devastate the economy, cause job losses and destruction Australia’s status, all while punishing both domestic and international students.

” ]It ] sends out the signal that Australia is not a welcoming place”, says Matthew Brown, deputy chief executive of the Group of Eight ( Go8 ), a body which represents Australia’s top ranked universities.

Education is Australia’s third biggest export, trailing just mine materials. International students, who pay almost half as much as American students on regular, prop up some institutions, subsidising research, scholarships, and home study fees. At the University of Sydney, for instance, they account for over 40 % of profit.

Prior to a national election in the fall of 2017, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s administration is under pressure to lower record levels of relocation. This will help improve the value of housing and lessen a cost-of-living crisis. And global students- who totalled 793, 335 last trimester- have become a goal.

The government has proposed to cap new foreign enrolments at 270,000 for 2025, which it says is a return to pre-pandemic levels. An accurate comparison with previous years is not possible because publicly available data is inadequate, according to an education expert.

According to education secretary Jason Clare, each higher education institution will have its own unique cap, with the most expensive cuts going to be made by providers of vocational education and training. Of the institutions affected, those in money cities will see the largest decreases.

Instead of crowded, crowded big cities, the government says the policy may direct students to local towns and colleges that need them.

Additionally, it asserts that the changes are intended to shield potential students from “unethical” providers, alleging that some accept applicants without satisfactory academic credentials or language proficiency and enroll students who prefer to work rather than study.

These reforms are intended to improve and make foreign education more equitable and put it on a more lasting footing going forward, according to Clare.

Abul Rizvi, a former state official who shaped Australia’s experienced migration policy, says the “underfunded” industry has “long been chasing fee income from international students and sacrificing learning integrity in the process”.

According to Dr. Brown, “every college is having a discussion about whether they’re too dependent on foreign student income” and how to address this.

However, the sector’s reaction to the caps announcement was generally angry.

The Go8 has called the proposed legislation “draconian”, while some accused the state of “wilfully weakening” the market and of using global students as” cannon feed in a poll-driven fight over movement”.

The government has not specified how long the caps will remain in effect, but Dr. Brown claims that according to their calculations, the Go8 will lose A$ 1 billion in members in just the first year. The broader economy would suffer a A$ 5.3bn hit, resulting in the loss of 20, 000 jobs, according to their research.

The Australian Treasury Department has described those projections as “doubtful,” but it has n’t released its own modeling of the changes ‘ impact on the economy.

Dr. Brown also warned that the caps could force some universities to revoke offers made to foreign students, stifle important research programs, and increase tuition costs for some Australian students.

However a handful of smaller universities, for whom the caps are beneficial, welcomed the news.

La Trobe University’s Vice-Chancellor Theo Farrell said they supported” transparent and proportionate measures” to manage international student growth in Australia.

He said,” We recognize that a lot of people in the political and community support net migration rates.”

But Dr Brown argues there is also a hit to Australia’s reputation which is harder to quantify, pointing to Canada as a warning. Although there was a cap on foreign students introduced this year, industry bodies claim that enrollment has fallen significantly below that figure because anxious students would prefer to apply for courses of study with greater certainty.

It is not the minister’s responsibility to unilaterally decide on caps based on some formula that serves a political goal, but we need an international education system that has managed growth built in.

The government should consider introducing a minimum university entrance exam score, according to Mr. Rizvi, rather than going ahead with the proposed caps in Australia.

He wrote on X,” We’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” not to dissuade poor students but to discourage high-achieving students who have options.

Meanwhile in parliament, the Greens have said the policy amounts to “racist dog-whistling”, and one of the government’s MPs has broken ranks to attack it too.

” A hard cap would be bad for Australia’s human capital and the talent pipeline, bad for soft power and bad for academic excellence and research”, Julian Hill told The Australian newspaper.

But despite the criticisms, the bill legislating the limits- set to be debated in parliament this week- is expected to pass, with the opposition’s support.

Clare acknowledged that some service providers may have to make difficult budget decisions, but she argued that any claim that the policy” somehow is tearing down international education is absolutely and fundamentally false.”

The changes are causing students a lot of anxiety and confusion, but with less than two months until they are supposed to go into effect.

The news is spreading like a lead balloon in China and India, Australia’s two biggest international markets.

Students in India, who most often come from middle-class families and spend years planning and preparing for their education abroad, will be very burdened by this. Their dreams will be quashed”, Amritsar-based immigration consultant Rupinder Singh told the BBC.

Vedant Gadhavi, a student at Monash University, claims that some of his Gujarati friends who were planning to study abroad for their master’s degrees were spooked.

They appear to have had their plans altered a little as a result of the constant change.

Jenny, a senior high school student in Anhui province in China, claims that attending an Australian university with a high standard of education is “easier” than enrolling in a fiercely competitive Chinese university.

” It’s all up in the air now”, she tells the BBC.

She adds that going to a lower-ranked university in a regional location is not an option for her or her peers:” We]just ] wo n’t go to Australia at all”.

Rishika Agrawal, president of the Australian National University’s International Students ‘ Department, says the proposed laws have stoked other uneasy feelings.

” Undoubtedly there are other students who believe that the government is showing more hostility toward immigrants in Australia.”

And, she adds, with the contributions to society made by international students often overlooked, while their post-graduate employment options dry up, there’s growing resentment.

They return to their home countries after putting in a lot of money toward their education, which they do not actually get paid for.

” They definitely do feel like cash cows.”

As the debate continues in parliament, there’s been some relief for Anannya. She soon received the official master’s enrolment certificate and new study visa she feared would never arrive after speaking with the BBC and only weeks away from the start of her course.

However, many more students are still awaiting and worrying.

” If I were in their shoes, I’d feel very helpless, very disappointed. According to Ritsika, it is already robbing Australia of its past credibility.

Fan Wang in Singapore and Zoya Mateen in Delhi both provided additional reporting.