The federal government is due to introduce legislation on Thursday to enable new caps on the number of international student places at educational institutions in Australia. These include universities, TAFEs and private colleges.

The government is proposing that education providers wanting to go over their allocated limit would have to build new accommodation for international and domestic students.

As Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted in his budget speech on Tuesday night:

We will limit how many international students can be enrolled by each university based on a formula, including how much housing they build.

So, what’s been proposed and how did we get here?

The legislation will:

pause applications for registration from new international education providers and of new courses from existing providers for periods of up to 12 months

require new providers seeking registration to demonstrate a track record of quality education delivery to domestic students before they are allowed to recruit international students

prevent providers under serious regulatory investigation from recruiting new international students.

For the last 40 years or so, successive federal governments have focused on developing the international education sector. That’s included national branding campaigns, regulation of international education providers, and creating favourable visa conditions that allow students to work part time during their studies.

It worked very well, making Australia one of the world’s leading destinations for international students.

International students enliven our campuses and cities, contribute to meeting our skills needs, and create........

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