Australia: Foreign students clampdown

Foreign students in Australia: MD111 cap

Australian universities are saddled with de facto international enrolment caps, after Canberra signalled its intention to maintain a visa processing regime that imposes nebulous limits on overseas student recruitment. University of Technology Sydney (UTS) vice chancellor Andrew Parfitt says the new regime, known as ministerial direction 111 (MD111), has torpedoed his hopes of reviving the institution’s pre-Covid foreign students admissions. The government introduced MD111 amid widespread dissatisfaction with the previous arrangement, ministerial direction 107, after opposition parties blocked legislation that would have capped overseas student numbers at each institution.

MD111 requires immigration officials to delay processing of visas for students enrolled with institutions that have reached 80 percent of the quota assigned under last year’s now defunct legislation. “We’ve hit our 80 percent and it looks like processing is slower,” says Parfitt. “I think we’ll meet the budget number this year, but we won’t get (any) growth.” Parfitt says every international student brings in revenue of about A$35,000 (Rs.19.3 lakh), and the difference between a 25 percent and 30 percent overseas share of enrolments equates to A$70 million (Rs.392 crore) of institutional income.

UTS says its indicative cap of 4,800 new overseas students this year would have pegged its share of international enrolments at around 22 percent, up from 20 percent in 2024 but well below earlier figures. Foreign students comprised 25 percent of the university’s enrolment load in 2023 and around 33 percent before the pandemic, according to Education Department data.

Universities want the government to replace MD111 or revise thresholds used for slowing down visa processing. But in an interview with The Australian, education minister Jason Clare offered no indications of change. “Direction 111, as well as the increase in the visa fees of students, has helped us to reduce student visa applications by about 30 percent this year, so that’s working,” says Clare.