Australian international student visa applications plummet amid govt crackdown

Canberra, Oct 3 : The number of visa applications by international students to study in Australia has fallen by half following a government crackdown to reduce the country’s migrant intake.

According to Department of Education figures published by Nine Entertainment newspapers on Thursday, there were 15,270 international student visa applications lodged from overseas in August, down from 30,703 in August 2023. In July, 18,697 offshore students applied for visas to study in Australia, compared to 36,207 in the same month in 2023, Xinhua news agency reported.

It comes after the government more than doubled the application fee for international student visas from 710 Australian dollars ($487.4) to 1,600 Australian dollars ($1,098.4) from July 1. The government in August announced it would cap new international student enrolments at universities and vocational education providers at 270,000 in 2025 as part of a broader strategy to cut Australia’s record-high migrant intake. The new data revealed that visa applications from India — the second-biggest source country for international students in Australia — fell by 66.4 per cent from a combined 13,047 in July and August 2023 to 4,383 in the same period in 2024.

Applications from the Philippines fell from 5,126 to 849 and those from Pakistan from 4,234 to 616. Visa applications from China — the largest source country of international students in Australia — fell by less than 10 per cent between 2023 and 2024. The peak body for universities, Universities Australia, in August, warned that the government’s proposed student cap would cost the nation’s economy billions of dollars and result in thousands of job losses in the higher education industry.