The proposed legislation would also give the minister the power to impose caps on a course-level basis, which has been described by universities as an unprecedented level of government intervention.

Group of Eight universities chief executive Vicki Thomson accused Labor of making the sector the “fall guy” in its battle to slash migration in the lead-up to the next election.

“This rushed and poorly framed legislation is a classic example of retrofitting policy to suit dubious politics,” she said.

“Ironically, while the Australian government is effectively building a wall to lock out international students, the US presidential nominee Trump is demolishing one by promising Green Cards to anyone who wants to study in the US.”

Thomson said that for Group of Eight members alone – which include the University of Sydney, the University of NSW and the University of Melbourne – capping of international students to 2019 levels against 2023 post-pandemic enrolment figures would cost the nation more than $5.3 billion in economic output and over 22,500 jobs.

National Tertiary Education Union president Alison Barnes said university managements and the federal government must rule out any job cuts.

“It’s absolutely outrageous for the vice chancellors’ lobby group to be threatening the jobs of 14,000 academic and professional staff who are an indispensable part of our higher education system,” she said.

“Uncertainty around these changes have created a vacuum allowing opportunistic vice chancellors to put job losses on the table.”

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Independent Higher Education Australia chief executive Peter Hendy said while he understood that universities had been in “significant and detailed” communication with the government, his sector had had only limited consultation.

He said hard caps across the board would cause many businesses to go under immediately after the caps were implemented, a large number of them almost entirely devoted to international students.

“It would be a catastrophic event for those involved,” he told the parliamentary inquiry.

Felix Pirie, deputy chief executive of the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia, said that the current migration crackdown had already led some colleges to sack staff and move to close campuses.

Clare, the education minister, has maintained the changes will be implemented from January 1 next year, but said the government had not finalised the proposed limits for international education providers.

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