Författare: Peter Hurley Associate Professor and Director Mitchell Insti

The federal government has found a new way to manage the number of international students in Australia.

It has instructed immigration officials to prioritise student visa applications for all institutions, until they near the individual caps the government proposed for them earlier this year.

This will work as an informal cap, after the Coalition and Greens blocked Labor’s attempt to pass an international student caps bill in November.

How will this work and what does the change mean for international students, universities, private colleges and TAFEs?

Read more:
The Coalition will block the student caps bill. Brace yourself for more uncertainty over international students

What is being proposed?

The government has made the change via a ministerial direction. This is an official instruction from a minister to a public body or organisation. For immigration, this means the minister can instruct decision makers on what to consider when processing on a visa application.

Under this ministerial direction, officials will manage student visa applications using a “prioritisation threshold”. This means officials will prioritise new student visa applications for all higher education and vocational training providers up to 80% of their international student allocations for 2025.

These allocations were set by the government in August, on the thinking legislation to enable their implementation would be approved by parliament before the end of the year.

This week’s new ministerial direction replaces an unpopular one made in December 2023, which instructed officials to prioritise applications for students wanting to go to “lower risk” institutions.

Under the outgoing system – heavily criticised by the university sector – prospective students at regional universities and small providers were more likely to experience delays or have their visa applications refused.

The government says the new approach will manage international student numbers in a “fairer way”, particularly for regional and outer metropolitan universities and TAFEs.

For the university sector, it also provides some much-needed certainty about their ability to enrol international students. Peak body Universities Australia described it as a “commonsense decision”.

The caps are part of a bigger immigration issue

The Albanese government has been trying to introduce caps on international students because of a big increase in net overseas migration. This is the change in the number of citizens and migrants living in Australia.

Net overseas migration increased much more quickly than the Australian government expected after international borders reopened in 2021. A 2023 review of Australia’s immigration regime also found the number of temporary migrants had swollen. International students were a big part of that increase.

To exert greater control over the numbers of international students, during the past year, the government has been introducing a raft of changes.

This includes higher English language requirements for students and doubling visa application fees to $A1,600.

Post-study visas allowing international students to stay in Australia after finishing their course were also reduced.

The proposed international student caps were the most recent part of these changes.

Unlike other parts of the migration program, international student visas have not normally been limited. So the proposed student caps bring international education more in line with other parts of the program.

We’re already seeing fewer international students arrive

Recent data shows net overseas migration is not falling fast enough to meet government targets.

There are, however, signs the various “go slow” approaches are working, at least with international students. The number of international students arriving in Australia is beginning to trend downwards.

It’s important to note the government is not necessarily seeking to cut the overall number of international students studying in Australia. Instead, it wants to limit the rate of growth to pre-pandemic levels.

Why does this matter so much?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates international education contributes $51 billion to the Australian economy. As part of this, higher education institutions receive almost $16 billion in tuition fees from international students.

That means overall international student revenue is rivalling the amount universities receive from the government for domestic students.

So the size of the sector, and its growth, makes it one of the biggest issues in tertiary education.

Watch out for more changes

The new ministerial direction suggests the government’s current priority is to gain control over the number of international students, while minimising the impact on the sector.

But ministerial directions that alter processing times have proven to be a blunt instrument when it comes to managing international student visas – as some regional universities discovered this year.

This means a longer-term solution, like legislative changes, may still be needed.

Meanwhile, next year’s federal election, and Labor and the Coaltion’s moves to make migration a key issue, mean Australia’s international education sector faces more uncertainty in 2025. Läs mer…

The Albanese government has pledged two major changes to early childhood education and care in the run up to next year’s federal election.

Labor plans to introduce a “3 day guarantee” (three days a week) of early childhood education and care to all children before they start school. And it will fund the building of 160 centres in regions were services are hard to find.

The new centres will be part of a A$1.03 billion investment over four years. The government is proposing these will be non-profit and ideally built on, or close to, school sites.

The guarantee would start in January 2026 and the building fund from mid-2025. What will these policies mean for families?

Read more:
Anthony Albanese to promise three days subsidised child care without an activity test

The ‘3 day guarantee’

The guarantee means parents will no longer need to satisfy an “activity test” (by working, studying or volunteering) to qualify for the Child Care Subsidy.

The government says the guarantee is part of a “universal” early childhood education and care system, where access to subsidised care is available to all families, regardless of whether they work or not.

High-quality early learning can have a positive impact on child development, especially for children from more disadvantaged backgrounds. This is why researchers and advocates have long-criticised the activity test, saying it unfairly targets lower-socioeconomic families.

A 2022 Impact Economics report argued the activity test limited parent’s ability to respond to opportunities and pursue work, study and job search activities – especially those in casual jobs – because they have no or limited access to childcare.

The government estimates the guarantee will benefit around 66,700 families in its first full financial year, and more than 100,000 families will be eligible for additional hours of subsidised care.

The Albanese government has pledged to build 160 new early childhood centres.
Russell Freeman/AAP

New childcare centres

The government is also planning to build more early childhood centres centres.

This follows Mitchell Institute research into “childcare deserts” that showed how accessibility to early learning varies enormously across Australia. Our research found parts of regional and remote Australia had some of the worst access to early learning.

A fund to support building new early childhood centres was a recommendation of a September 2024 Productivity Commission report. The report highlighted how a lack of access to capital funds can cause barriers to the building and operation of new centres in areas of low provision.

Co-locating new centres in schools also fits with wider policy initiatives outside of the early childhood sector. A 2023 government-commissioned review recommended more support for “full-service schools”. This where schools become centres for different community services, such as allied health care and early learning.

It also follows the United Kingdom where the Starmer government has committed to funding an extra 100,000 nursery places in schools with empty classrooms.

Does this reform go far enough?

These new announcements are the latest in a series of extra support for the early childhood sector.

Earlier this year, the federal government committed an extra $3.6 billion over two years for a pay boost for early childhood workers. At the last election, the government committed about $5.4 billion starting from 2023 to make childcare cheaper for parents.

But these newest policies leave some big questions unanswered. The rates for the Child Care Subsidy are not changing as a result. This means most families will still pay the same amount to access early childhood services as before.

The number of proposed new centres (160) is also relatively modest compared to the overall size of the sector. There are currently more than 9,000 registered long day-care centres in Australia. So the government’s proposed extra 12,000 places will be on top of about 700,000 licensed places already available.

We also don’t know where the new centres will be built.

There are already more than 9,000 long care centres in Australia. The federal government says it will build 160 more.
Bianca De Marchi/AAP

What happens now?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has linked these announcements to the creation of other “universal” systems, like Medicare, superannuation and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

But there are big challenges facing a universal early education and care system.

Our research has highlighted how Australia’s subsidies system can incentivise early childhood providers to operate in areas where they can charge more. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission made similar findings in its 2023 report.

So making sure there is equal access across Australia to high-quality early learning remains a challenge.

The guarantee will further increase demand for places by expanding the number of children who are eligible for a subsidised place. So, while more families in theory would have access to three days of subsidised care, they may not be able to get it.

In its recent report the Productivity Commission highlighted the need for a staged expansion. This is to ensure the system can cope with the extra demand.

The two major changes announced this week, along with the pay boost for the sector, suggests the government is following this staged approach. Läs mer…