It comes after Australia announced plans last month to cap international student enrolments at 270,000 for 2025.
The petition, titled Destruction of Australia’s International Education Industry: Protect Jobs and the Economy, calls upon the Australian parliament to recognise the contribution of international students.
While highlighting how international students have helped industries facing labour shortage in Australia, the petition slammed the ESOS Bill for causing “devastating” effects on the country’s economy.
“The ESOS Amendment Bill 2024 completely undermines the contribution of international students in Australia and overlooks the devastating effects it can cause to the second biggest export industry, international education, by ruining the economy and jobs if passed as it is,” the petition’s description said.
The goal is to gather 10,000 signatures on the petition, according to Rob Relton, campus director NSW, Holmes Institute.
Ministerial direction 107, which prioritised international students applying at low-risk institutions, has been criticised for slower visa processing and increased cancellations.
With the cap now replacing the framework, stakeholders believe the impact on Australia’s international education sector will be seen for years to come.
“The long-term impact of caps will result in students choosing other destinations as Australia will seem just too difficult, costly due to increased visa fees and unfriendly, we will not recover from the damage to soft diplomacy ever,” Relton told The PIE News.
“There will be significant job losses, businesses will close, the economic destruction will be felt long term.”
Relton added that the cap has been introduced with little to no consultation from the sector, lambasting the move as a “robocap” due to “lack of human involvement”.
The long term impact of caps will result in students choosing other destinations as Australia will seem just too difficult
Rob Relton, Holmes Institute.
While public universities have been allocated 145,000 new international student commencements in 2025, just 95,000 enrolments have been assigned to VET providers.
Although the proposed caps are yet to pass the Senate, institutions across Australia are already facing the repercussions of the latest announcements.
One of them is Australian Catholic University (AUC), which decided that it will no longer be offering places for 2025 after already reaching its enrolment limit.
The impact of the recent policy changes is more evident in the VET sector, where industry stakeholders have called the cap allocations “emotionally devastating“.
The sector is already seeing staff redundancies, health issues owing to the stress concerning the caps, and unannounced inspections in an effort to crack down on so-called “ghost colleges”.
According to a blog published by sector consultant Clare Field, providers are also exploring the possibility of legal action.
Labelling the current system “flawed”, the petition urged the parliament to provide an equitable and fair distribution of caps to consider the varied needs of all institutions.
It also asks to delay the ESOS Bill until there’s a more transparency over the legislation and input from all relevant stakeholders.
“We urge the Parliament to implement strict checks and balances on the minister’s powers under the ESOS Amendment Bill. This will ensure that these powers are exercised responsibly and in the best interests of students, educational institutions, and the Australian economy,” stated the petition.
“The sector has been very active, individual providers and groups are targeting the politicians to defer the passage of the bill via the senate,” said Relton.
“What sense is there in destroying the largest non-mining sector [in Australia] and disguise the true fact of the government being irresponsible in building more homes? We are now seeing the introduction of a housing bill to senate, it’s not lost on the sector why this is happening.“
An additional Senate hearing on the ESOS Amendment Bill will be held on October 2, with the committee reporting its findings six days later.
Submissions to the Education and Employment Legislation Committee’s inquiry are set to close on Thursday.
