The Australian higher education and PBSA sectors have hit back at Opposition plans to further increase international student visa fees and implement a tougher cap on student numbers, following an announcement by Opposition leader Peter Dutton ahead of Australia’s federal election on 3 May 2025.
The Opposition leader told reporters that a cap on the number of international students coming into Australia is necessary to free up homes for young Australians. Dutton’s proposal includes plans to cap new international student arrivals at 240,000 a year – a figure that is 30,000 less than Labor’s proposed cap outlined in last year’s scrapped ESOS Amendment Bill.
The coalition’s plan also includes increasing student visa fees to AUD $2,500 and up to AUD $5,000 for applicants applying to Group of Eight universities, with visa fees non-refundable in the event of a visa decline. The coalition’s announcement follows the Labor government’s decision in July 2024 to increase student visa fees by 125%, from AUD $710 to AUD $1,600, making Australia the most expensive country in the world for study visa fees, having up to eight times the cost of some competitor countries.
A statement by English Australia, the peak industry body for Australia’s English language teaching sector, said that following the July 2024 increase in student visa fees, “applications for student visas for study in the English language sector have fallen by 50%. A further increase of 56% to $2,500 would be fatal for the English language teaching sector. As the average enrolment is less than 20 weeks, this application charge would be utterly disproportionate. A $2,500 student visa fee represents a clear message that Australia does not welcome international students.”
Universities Australia CEO Luke Sheehy cautioned against using international students as scapegoats in the housing debate.
“Students make up less than six per cent of the national rental market. The real solution is more homes, not fewer students.” Mr Sheehy said.
Group of Eight Chief Executive Vicki Thomson also questioned the coalition’s planned approach, saying that “the easy politics of scapegoating international students must come to an end” and “blaming international students for the housing crisis is flawed policy.”
“Australia already has the highest student visa fees in the world. The Coalition’s plan to hike it even further in this targeted way only reinforces the negative and damaging messages Australia has sent to the international education market in recent years.”
Student Accommodation Council Executive Director Torie Brown also said that a reduction in international student numbers would have little housing impact but a very real economic one and that a student cap is not the answer to Australia’s rental crisis.
“If governments want to remove any impact of students coming from overseas to study in the rental market, they should ask universities to help students find suitable student-only housing before they arrive in the country.
“While the evidence has repeatedly shown students are not the cause of the housing crisis, a first-year accommodation guarantee would fill existing student-only beds and unlock the development of more student accommodation.”
“Purpose-built student accommodation is the only accommodation reserved exclusively for students that can be secured before they land in Australia.”
“Time and again, evidence has shown that international students are not a key factor in housing affordability and supply, but if governments are serious about reducing their impacts, they should work with the sector to supercharge the development of more student-only housing,” Ms Brown said.
Research commissioned by the Student Accommodation Council showed the previously proposed caps at 270,000 students would only lower the share of international students in the rental market from 5.4 to 4.8 per cent in 2026 cent and lower rents by $5 a week.
Similarly, research undertaken by the University of South Australia that examined rental data between 2017 and 2024 found that there is no link between international student numbers and the cost of rent.
