As international student numbers fall, we must ask ourselves an important question

The Advertiser

15-07-2025

The latest international student data from Australia's Department of Education paints an increasingly grim scenario for the international education sector due to a steep decline in the number of new students.
The Department's data compares the number of new students from April 2024 to April 2025, with many sectors recording massive falls in numbers including, English language (ELICOS) (down 49 per cent) VET (down 67 per cent) and school (down 23 per cent), while the higher education sector is only down 2 per cent.
The Department's data also shows that the desire for diversity, cited in the 2021 to 2030 Australian Strategy for International Education, is not being fulfilled, with 57 per cent of all international students coming from just five source countries - China (23 per cent), India (17 per cent), Nepal (8 per cent), Vietnam (5 per cent) and Philippines (4 per cent).
Indeed, many cohorts have had their numbers slashed, including those from Latin America.
The number of visa grants for English studies has halved from 35,596 to 17,999 between August and December 2024, with Colombia hardest hit, numbers falling from 24.9 per cent to 8.5 per cent of visas granted.
Another concerning trend revealed in the Education Department's latest data release is that in both higher education and VET, the most popular courses are in management and commerce.
While this area of study is likely very useful for students who are returning to their home country, it's hardly an area where Australia is facing pressing skills shortages.
With visa refusals continuing en masse both offshore and onshore, the Administrative Review Tribunal, already at capacity, now has about 100,000 pending cases, 34,000 of these being student visa refusals.
This begs a fundamental question for the international education sector now, which is: What constitutes a genuine student?
This is where the issue lies and what many in the sector are waiting to have fully clarified by the government, since it is upon this definition that refusals are based, many quite subjectively.
Should we be permitting only those who have the obvious skill sets to fill skills shortages in Australia to enter, or to study in these areas, only if they have previous experience and studies that are relevant?
Or should we also be encouraging those who wish to study business or marketing at VET level just to have an experience of studying outside of their countries, to then go back home and spread the message of what a great country Australia is, otherwise known as "soft diplomacy"?
The reality is that Home Affairs visa processing officers don't seem to clearly know what the government's objective is currently. We are seeing decisions made that leave qualified engineers, architects and would-be tradies, who could help solve the country's housing crisis, either appealing their visa rejection or simply giving up and going home or to an alternate study destination.
Recently, I spoke with some students from Colombia, many of whom had their visas refused.
Some were well-qualified engineers who could have ably assisted in addressing the urgent and growing shortage of engineers in the country.
They simply can't understand why their visas were refused, and believe a marked increase in the number of people applying for protection visas from Colombia and other Latin American countries could be unfairly impacting their chances, as legitimate and qualified students, of having their study visas approved.
In the meantime, we keep hearing of good quality education providers in both the English and VET sectors, collapsing, one after another, while poor quality operators continue to thrive under the radar.
When you go nuclear, you get left with the cockroaches.
Yes, a clean-up of the sector is necessary, but at this point we are risking severe economic consequences - job losses amongst Australians, 240,000 of whom have been employed in the sector, and reputational challenges where Australia is not seen as the once friendly country it was.
The government may well be pleased with the dramatic reduction in student numbers, but there will be significant unintended consequences of this policy in the coming years.
Decisive action needs to be taken, and now, before it's too late and we are left as we were after two years of border closures, with the country crying out for skilled workers and both businesses and the economy reeling from the impact.
The latest international student data from Australia's Department of Education paints an increasingly grim scenario for the international education sector due to a steep decline in the number of new students.
The Department's data compares the number of new students from April 2024 to April 2025, with many sectors recording massive falls in numbers including, English language (ELICOS) (down 49 per cent) VET (down 67 per cent) and school (down 23 per cent), while the higher education sector is only down 2 per cent.
The Department's data also shows that the desire for diversity, cited in the 2021 to 2030 Australian Strategy for International Education, is not being fulfilled, with 57 per cent of all international students coming from just five source countries - China (23 per cent), India (17 per cent), Nepal (8 per cent), Vietnam (5 per cent) and Philippines (4 per cent).
Indeed, many cohorts have had their numbers slashed, including those from Latin America.
The number of visa grants for English studies has halved from 35,596 to 17,999 between August and December 2024, with Colombia hardest hit, numbers falling from 24.9 per cent to 8.5 per cent of visas granted.
Another concerning trend revealed in the Education Department's latest data release is that in both higher education and VET, the most popular courses are in management and commerce.
While this area of study is likely very useful for students who are returning to their home country, it's hardly an area where Australia is facing pressing skills shortages.
With visa refusals continuing en masse both offshore and onshore, the Administrative Review Tribunal, already at capacity, now has about 100,000 pending cases, 34,000 of these being student visa refusals.
This begs a fundamental question for the international education sector now, which is: What constitutes a genuine student?
This is where the issue lies and what many in the sector are waiting to have fully clarified by the government, since it is upon this definition that refusals are based, many quite subjectively.
Should we be permitting only those who have the obvious skill sets to fill skills shortages in Australia to enter, or to study in these areas, only if they have previous experience and studies that are relevant?
Or should we also be encouraging those who wish to study business or marketing at VET level just to have an experience of studying outside of their countries, to then go back home and spread the message of what a great country Australia is, otherwise known as "soft diplomacy"?
The reality is that Home Affairs visa processing officers don't seem to clearly know what the government's objective is currently. We are seeing decisions made that leave qualified engineers, architects and would-be tradies, who could help solve the country's housing crisis, either appealing their visa rejection or simply giving up and going home or to an alternate study destination.
Recently, I spoke with some students from Colombia, many of whom had their visas refused.
Some were well-qualified engineers who could have ably assisted in addressing the urgent and growing shortage of engineers in the country.
They simply can't understand why their visas were refused, and believe a marked increase in the number of people applying for protection visas from Colombia and other Latin American countries could be unfairly impacting their chances, as legitimate and qualified students, of having their study visas approved.
In the meantime, we keep hearing of good quality education providers in both the English and VET sectors, collapsing, one after another, while poor quality operators continue to thrive under the radar.
When you go nuclear, you get left with the cockroaches.
Yes, a clean-up of the sector is necessary, but at this point we are risking severe economic consequences - job losses amongst Australians, 240,000 of whom have been employed in the sector, and reputational challenges where Australia is not seen as the once friendly country it was.
The government may well be pleased with the dramatic reduction in student numbers, but there will be significant unintended consequences of this policy in the coming years.
Decisive action needs to be taken, and now, before it's too late and we are left as we were after two years of border closures, with the country crying out for skilled workers and both businesses and the economy reeling from the impact.
The latest international student data from Australia's Department of Education paints an increasingly grim scenario for the international education sector due to a steep decline in the number of new students.
The Department's data compares the number of new students from April 2024 to April 2025, with many sectors recording massive falls in numbers including, English language (ELICOS) (down 49 per cent) VET (down 67 per cent) and school (down 23 per cent), while the higher education sector is only down 2 per cent.
The Department's data also shows that the desire for diversity, cited in the 2021 to 2030 Australian Strategy for International Education, is not being fulfilled, with 57 per cent of all international students coming from just five source countries - China (23 per cent), India (17 per cent), Nepal (8 per cent), Vietnam (5 per cent) and Philippines (4 per cent).
Indeed, many cohorts have had their numbers slashed, including those from Latin America.
The number of visa grants for English studies has halved from 35,596 to 17,999 between August and December 2024, with Colombia hardest hit, numbers falling from 24.9 per cent to 8.5 per cent of visas granted.
Another concerning trend revealed in the Education Department's latest data release is that in both higher education and VET, the most popular courses are in management and commerce.
While this area of study is likely very useful for students who are returning to their home country, it's hardly an area where Australia is facing pressing skills shortages.
With visa refusals continuing en masse both offshore and onshore, the Administrative Review Tribunal, already at capacity, now has about 100,000 pending cases, 34,000 of these being student visa refusals.
This begs a fundamental question for the international education sector now, which is: What constitutes a genuine student?
This is where the issue lies and what many in the sector are waiting to have fully clarified by the government, since it is upon this definition that refusals are based, many quite subjectively.
Should we be permitting only those who have the obvious skill sets to fill skills shortages in Australia to enter, or to study in these areas, only if they have previous experience and studies that are relevant?
Or should we also be encouraging those who wish to study business or marketing at VET level just to have an experience of studying outside of their countries, to then go back home and spread the message of what a great country Australia is, otherwise known as "soft diplomacy"?
The reality is that Home Affairs visa processing officers don't seem to clearly know what the government's objective is currently. We are seeing decisions made that leave qualified engineers, architects and would-be tradies, who could help solve the country's housing crisis, either appealing their visa rejection or simply giving up and going home or to an alternate study destination.
Recently, I spoke with some students from Colombia, many of whom had their visas refused.
Some were well-qualified engineers who could have ably assisted in addressing the urgent and growing shortage of engineers in the country.
They simply can't understand why their visas were refused, and believe a marked increase in the number of people applying for protection visas from Colombia and other Latin American countries could be unfairly impacting their chances, as legitimate and qualified students, of having their study visas approved.
In the meantime, we keep hearing of good quality education providers in both the English and VET sectors, collapsing, one after another, while poor quality operators continue to thrive under the radar.
When you go nuclear, you get left with the cockroaches.
Yes, a clean-up of the sector is necessary, but at this point we are risking severe economic consequences - job losses amongst Australians, 240,000 of whom have been employed in the sector, and reputational challenges where Australia is not seen as the once friendly country it was.
The government may well be pleased with the dramatic reduction in student numbers, but there will be significant unintended consequences of this policy in the coming years.
Decisive action needs to be taken, and now, before it's too late and we are left as we were after two years of border closures, with the country crying out for skilled workers and both businesses and the economy reeling from the impact.
The latest international student data from Australia's Department of Education paints an increasingly grim scenario for the international education sector due to a steep decline in the number of new students.
The Department's data compares the number of new students from April 2024 to April 2025, with many sectors recording massive falls in numbers including, English language (ELICOS) (down 49 per cent) VET (down 67 per cent) and school (down 23 per cent), while the higher education sector is only down 2 per cent.
The Department's data also shows that the desire for diversity, cited in the 2021 to 2030 Australian Strategy for International Education, is not being fulfilled, with 57 per cent of all international students coming from just five source countries - China (23 per cent), India (17 per cent), Nepal (8 per cent), Vietnam (5 per cent) and Philippines (4 per cent).
Indeed, many cohorts have had their numbers slashed, including those from Latin America.
The number of visa grants for English studies has halved from 35,596 to 17,999 between August and December 2024, with Colombia hardest hit, numbers falling from 24.9 per cent to 8.5 per cent of visas granted.
Another concerning trend revealed in the Education Department's latest data release is that in both higher education and VET, the most popular courses are in management and commerce.
While this area of study is likely very useful for students who are returning to their home country, it's hardly an area where Australia is facing pressing skills shortages.
With visa refusals continuing en masse both offshore and onshore, the Administrative Review Tribunal, already at capacity, now has about 100,000 pending cases, 34,000 of these being student visa refusals.
This begs a fundamental question for the international education sector now, which is: What constitutes a genuine student?
This is where the issue lies and what many in the sector are waiting to have fully clarified by the government, since it is upon this definition that refusals are based, many quite subjectively.
Should we be permitting only those who have the obvious skill sets to fill skills shortages in Australia to enter, or to study in these areas, only if they have previous experience and studies that are relevant?
Or should we also be encouraging those who wish to study business or marketing at VET level just to have an experience of studying outside of their countries, to then go back home and spread the message of what a great country Australia is, otherwise known as "soft diplomacy"?
The reality is that Home Affairs visa processing officers don't seem to clearly know what the government's objective is currently. We are seeing decisions made that leave qualified engineers, architects and would-be tradies, who could help solve the country's housing crisis, either appealing their visa rejection or simply giving up and going home or to an alternate study destination.
Recently, I spoke with some students from Colombia, many of whom had their visas refused.
Some were well-qualified engineers who could have ably assisted in addressing the urgent and growing shortage of engineers in the country.
They simply can't understand why their visas were refused, and believe a marked increase in the number of people applying for protection visas from Colombia and other Latin American countries could be unfairly impacting their chances, as legitimate and qualified students, of having their study visas approved.
In the meantime, we keep hearing of good quality education providers in both the English and VET sectors, collapsing, one after another, while poor quality operators continue to thrive under the radar.
When you go nuclear, you get left with the cockroaches.
Yes, a clean-up of the sector is necessary, but at this point we are risking severe economic consequences - job losses amongst Australians, 240,000 of whom have been employed in the sector, and reputational challenges where Australia is not seen as the once friendly country it was.
The government may well be pleased with the dramatic reduction in student numbers, but there will be significant unintended consequences of this policy in the coming years.
Decisive action needs to be taken, and now, before it's too late and we are left as we were after two years of border closures, with the country crying out for skilled workers and both businesses and the economy reeling from the impact.