In a speech at the Australian Education International (AEI) conference, Education Minister Jason Clare is reported to have told the audience that student caps will help with “the government’s ambitions to get immigration levels back to pre-pandemic levels, including international student numbers”.

The latest Treasury forecast of net migration in 2024-25 at 260,000, to the extent we can rely on those, is broadly consistent with Clare’s statement. In the three years prior to the pandemic (ie 2016-17; 2017-18 and 2018-19), net migration averaged around 246,000 per annum with the net student contribution to that rising from 104,000 in 2016-17 to 112,710 in 2018-19.

In 2018-19, the net student contribution to net migration had increased to 47 percent – the highest absolute and proportionate student contribution to net migration in our history (until that record was broken in 2022-23).

The net student contribution to net migration boomed after international borders were re-opened in 2022 as the Coalition Government had stomped on the student........

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