When Age reporter Clay Lucas investigated “ghost colleges” in Melbourne’s CBD last year, he was told that these “academies” and “institutes” – many of them with little to no visible student body on site – were making a mockery of both our education and immigration systems.

The federal government’s decision to cap the number of international students admitted to tertiary education represents a daring intervention into these two vexed and intertwined areas.

There can be no question that the student visa system has become a back door into this country for many people with no study plans. Often, as University of Sydney academic Salvatore Babones put it, “they are simply overpaying for a work visa”. But in the worst cases they are opening themselves up to exploitation and conditions akin to slavery.

Restoring integrity to that system is a worthy objective but also a daunting one. Our reporting has shown that even those who initially apply for a visa at a reputable university or college may later transfer to a less demanding course or institution under the guise of “concurrent study”, so that they may in effect abandon study for a job.

If the federal government is concerned with reducing the number of international student arrivals from its post-pandemic surge, opponents of the........

© The Age