Home Rental Price Soars, Australia Limits The Number Of International Student Registration

Illustration (Unsplash/jopwell)

JAKARTA - Australia will limit the number of new international students registrations by 270,000 for 2025. This restriction was triggered by a surge in house rental prices due to the invasion of migration. "There are about 10 percent more international students at our current university than before the pandemic, and about 50 percent more in our private vocational and training providers," Education Minister Jason Clare told a news conference. New international student registration will be limited to 145,000 for universities, around levels 2023, and 95,000 for practical and skill-based courses. Clare said the government would notify universities about their special registration limits. The Australian University said the government would apply handbrakes to this sector. "We recognize the government's right to control the number of migrations, but this should not be done at the expense of a single sector, especially which is economically as important as education," Professor David Lloyd said in a statement. International education, Australia's fourth-largest export after iron, gas, and coal ore, is worth A$36.4 billion ($24.7 billion) for the economy in the 2022-2023 financial year. But polls show voters are concerned about the entry of foreign students and foreign workers who put too much pressure on the housing market, making immigration one of the potential major battlefields in elections that are less than a year away. Net immigration hit record highs from September to September. On August 30, 2023, it jumped 60 percent to a record 548,800, largely driven by students from India, China, and the Philippines. That's higher than 518,000 people in the year ended June 2023.

In a bid to contain the surge in migration, the government last month over doubled visa costs for foreign students and pledged to close loopholes in regulations allowing them to continue extending their stay.