Education minister says enrolments to be limited to 270,000 in 2025 in bid to create ‘a better and a fairer system’.

Australia has announced a cap on the number of international students amid growing public discontent over rising housing costs.

Education Minister Jason Clare said on Tuesday that enrolments at publicly funded universities and vocational institutions would be limited to 270,000 in 2025 as part of efforts to create “a better and a fairer system”.

“What this means is next year there will be about the same number of international students starting a course here as there were before the pandemic,” Clare said at a news conference.

“There’ll be more in our universities and there’ll be fewer in our private vocational providers.”

Clare said the number of international students enrolled at universities was about 10 percent higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic, while enrolments at private vocational and training providers were up about 50 percent.

“Students are back but so are the shonks, people who are seeking to exploit this industry to make a quick buck,” Clare said, using an Australian slang term for a person involved in dishonest or suspicious activities.

The government’s announcement comes after Australia in February saw the number of international students top 700,000 for the first time, helping drive net migration to record levels.

Net overseas migration hit an all-time high of 548,800 in the year to September 2023, a 60 percent rise compared with the previous year.

The record influx has stoked public concerns about soaring housing costs.

Australia’s property prices have soared more than 40 percent nationwide since the start of the pandemic, with the median house in Sydney now valued at $965,000.

In an Essential Research poll released on Tuesday, 69 percent of respondents said migration was having a negative effect on house prices.

The proportion of respondents who said migration was “generally negative” for Australia – 42 percent – was up eight points compared with November 2023.

In an Essential Research poll published in May, about half of migrants and refugees said they felt they were being unfairly blamed for the unaffordability of housing.

Education is Australia’s fourth-biggest export industry after iron ore, gas and coal, contributing 36.4 billion Australian dollars ( $24.7bn) to the economy in the 2022-2023 financial year.

Tertiary education peak body Universities Australia criticised the enrolment cap, accusing the government of applying the “handbrake” to a crucial industry.

“International student fees help drive Australia’s economy and support universities to operate, making up a shortfall in government funding for research, teaching and campus infrastructure,” Universities Australia Chair David Lloyd said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Every dollar from overseas students is reinvested back into Australia’s universities. Having fewer students here will only widen the funding gap at a time universities need greater support.”