The rank-and-file committees at Western Sydney University and Macquarie University, and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) are jointly hosting an online forum this Wednesday, September 11 at 7 p.m. AEST to discuss how to fight the Australian Labor government’s international student enrolment caps and the thousands of resulting job cuts across the tertiary education sector. To register click the link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3-2u5sbnQ1-1FmQwiyP8rg

Details were finally released late last week pointing to how far Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government has lined up with the right-wing Liberal-National Coalition to slash the number of international student enrolments, triggering the loss of thousands of jobs throughout the higher education sector.

As warned by the Western Sydney University (WSU) Rank-and File Committee in announcing tomorrow evening’s online forum: “Both Labor and the Coalition are engaged in reactionary nationalism. They are trying to blame international students, like refugees and immigrants more broadly, for the worsening housing and cost-of-living crisis, and deteriorating living conditions affecting millions of working-class households.”

Federal Department of Education figures, only made public on Friday evening, show that 15 universities have had their numbers slashed for 2025, particularly targeting those with the highest numbers of Chinese students. Across the country, enrolments will be cut overall by more than 50,000, to 145,000, for publicly-funded universities, with severely damaging consequences.

Among the hardest hit are the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, both composed of more than 40 percent international students—many of them from China. They received 7 percent decreases on their 2023 intakes, making their 2025 caps 11,900 and 9,300 respectively.

The Australian National University had its international student allocation reduced by more than 14 percent. Murdoch University in Perth had its cohort cut by 34 percent to 3,500, down from 5,272 in 2023.

This will have a punitive financial impact, forcing universities to axe jobs, programs and courses, and conform strictly with the corporate- and military-related agenda of the Labor government’s Universities Accord, which ties reduced funding to government “mission statements.”

In fact, the department’s figures understate the true dimension of the cuts. For example, in an email to staff on Monday, University of Melbourne acting vice chancellor Nicola Phillips said the government’s cap represented an 18 percent reduction of new international student enrolments in 2025, compared to the management’s projection of 11,000 for 2025.

Phillips’ email also confirmed the WSU Rank-and-File Committee’s warnings that job cuts are already underway. She declared that while “a great deal of uncertainty” remained about the impact, “belt-tightening” had commenced, including a freeze on filling job vacancies and renewing employment contracts.

Similar job axes are being wielded at the University of Sydney, and throughout the tertiary education sector. Among the other universities already announcing such measures are Federation, Tasmania, La Trobe and Wollongong. Many more casual jobs are being eliminated.