The budget forecasts that Net Overseas Migration (NOM) will decline by 75,000 in 2025/26, and by a further 35,000 in 2026/27 – a projection that is especially significant for Australia’s international education sector, which is already grappling with a de facto cap on international student enrolments.
Elsewhere, the budget outlined that visa application charges are expected to deliver receipts of $4.2 billion in 2025/26 and $4.4 billion in 2026/27, following on from the government’s move to increase the fee for international student visas applying to study in Australia by 125%, from AUS$710 to AUS$1,600.
Luke Sheehy, chief executive officer at Universities Australia, acknowledged that “this is a difficult budget to deliver at a difficult time for Australians” and noted that it contains important support for Australians in a fiscally constrained environment.
“Cost-of-living relief in the budget is a win for Australians when many are doing it tough, including university students, and we welcome the government’s support in this way,” he said.
“We know that in a tight fiscal environment not every priority can be fully funded all at once, but an investment in Australia’s universities is an investment in Australia, and a worthy one,” added Sheehy.
However, Sheehy described the budget as a “missed opportunity to build on the government’s good”, referring to recent investments in the Universities Accord.
“Our student funding system needs urgent attention – it’s time for the Job-ready Graduates Package to go,” he said.
“JRG has unfairly altered fees for students and reduced funding to universities. This is counterintuitive to the goal of growing our universities in line with Australia’s growing skills needs.
“We want to work with the next federal government as a priority to set new funding rates and it’s imperative that the next federal budget funds this work properly and fully.”
“We need strong universities to deliver the skilled workers and the research and development that make our economy larger and more productive and drive our country’s progress,” said Sheehy.
“Our economy stands to gain AUS$240bn by 2050 from a fully skilled, university-educated workforce. This is a serious return on investment that we can’t ignore – an economic dividend for all Australians.
Universities Australia is also calling on the next federal government to:
- re-establish the Education Investment Fund to support the expansion of Australia’s universities
- increase funding for research and development, irrespective of what business does
- lift the PhD stipend to better support Australia’s best and brightest, and
- grow Australia’s international education sector sustainably without reducing its size or value.
Meanwhile, the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia, the peak body representing independent skills training, higher education, and international education providers, has also criticised the budget’s lack of measures to support or develop the sector.
ITECA raised concerns that the budget has done “little to assuage perceptions that international students are responsible for cost-of-living challenges being felt by so many Australians”.
In this respect, the budget has enabled the growth of these perceptions by failing to support international students and the businesses that deliver high quality education and training to them, ITECA’s statement read.
“Australia has a reputation as a global leader in delivering high quality education and training to international students,” said Felix Pirie, ITECA’s chief executive.
“However, recent initiatives, including those announced in this budget, have decimated the sector. This damage to international education has a harmful effect on our social cohesion, our international reputation and, of course, the economy, in what was a AUS$51bn sector.”
This damage to international education has a harmful effect on our social cohesion, our international reputation and of course the economy, in what was a AUS$51 billion sector.
Felix Pirie, ITECA
“International students coming to Australia comprise the largest cohort of the NOM, and also of visa charges. Students and their families see this, and they see that Australia wants fewer students, but wants them to pay more in non-refundable application charges. So they are looking elsewhere for their education,” said Pirie.
ITECA believes that Australia’s current policy frameworks are “inconsistent” and is calling for action to alter course to repair the damage to Australia’s global standing, and to the quality businesses supporting international students both in Australia and offshore.
“While the budget seeks to increase revenues and reduce student numbers simultaneously, this risks portraying Australia as prioritising government revenue over student wellbeing and educational outcomes,” said Pirie.
The Group of Eight (Go8) has also reacted, claiming the budget “ignores the critical role research and development (R&D) and universities must play in Australia’s future prosperity at its peril,” effectively bypassing one of the country’s “greatest national assets”.
“In whatever sector of the economy the government is prioritising, it is our research and innovation and our graduates who are critical to the nation fulfilling its economic and social potential,” said Group of Eight chief executive, Vicki Thomson.
“An increased defence spend must be supported by a workforce and R&D. Investment in health must be underpinned by medical research. A future made in Australia must be backed in by investment in R&D to deliver that sovereign capability together with Australian industry.”
