By Vicki Thomson, Chief Executive, The Group of Eight

The Australian Government is on the brink of the ultimate own goal – self sabotaging a $48 billion export sector by rushing through legislation that gives the Minister of the day unprecedented powers to cap the number of international student arrivals. 

Australia’s major political parties are playing the migration card ahead of the next election and international students have been caught in the fray. 

Like economies around the globe Australia is facing complex challenges – the cost of living is spiralling and there’s a housing crisis. The post COVID spike in migration has put a lens, albeit unfairly, on international student arrivals. Both sides of politics have swallowed the migration hook and we are in a race to the bottom.

The solution being proposed is a cap on international student numbers, like that imposed in Canada at the start of 2024 which has been an unmitigated disaster with international student enrolments plunging below the official caps - such was the negative signalling. 

We should instead be thanking international students, largely from Asia, for propping up our economy post-COVID. It was spending by international students that was directly responsible for more than half of our economic growth for 2023. 

Slashing the sector will have dire consequences – economically, socially, and diplomatically.

The Government’s rationale for capping international student numbers chops and changes as each excuse is discredited whether it’s the housing crisis, cost of living, rental availability, rental affordability, redistribution of students to regional areas, or the removal of ‘shonks’, ‘crooks’, and ‘dodgy providers’ from the system. 

The Group of Eight which comprises Australia’s leading research-intensive universities shares the Government’s policy goal of a well-managed international education sector underpinned by quality and integrity – that is in the national interest. 

But we absolutely reject the notion that capping international student arrivals will play any part in solving the challenges we face as a nation. It will only exacerbate them. 

A cap on international student numbers won’t ease housing pressure. It doesn’t address supply side issues, the real cause of the housing crisis. International students make up only four percent of the rental market. 

It won’t address migration targets. Not all students who study in Australia are seeking a migration outcome – only 16 per cent of international students remain in Australia and the remainder return home, importantly with an appreciation of our way of life and role in the region.

Vicki Thomson is Chief Executive and Board Director of the The Group of Eight universities.

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