International Students - helena-lopes-unsplashInternational Students - helena-lopes-unsplash

Australia has more than doubled the cost of student visa fees for international students from USD 710 to USD 1,600. This steep hike will bite thousands of Indians planning to study down under. Although the decision has sparked outrage among students, this was not entirely unexpected, say some experts. While student representatives argue that the increase in prices will push potential students to consider other countries like the US, New Zealand, Canada or the UK.

From July 1, the fee for international student visas has been increased from USD 710.00 to USD 1,600.00 per application for international student visa. The rise in fees makes applying for a student visa for Australia far more expensive than in competing countries like the U.S. and Canada, where they cost about $185 and C$150 ($110) respectively.

According to the government, additional revenue (generated from increased fees) will be used to support educational initiatives.

“International education is an incredibly important national asset and we need to ensure its integrity and quality,” Minister for Education Jason Clare said in a statement.

That is only half truth. The truth is this hike will, in addition to extra revenue, allow a little drop in temperature in the demand for Australian places in the international education market. Ever since the Albanese government has come into power, they picked up the baton from their predecessors, to raise revenue for domestic consumption from the large increases in international student intakes, along with significantly high migrant numbers generating billions in income for the government.

That put undue and unmanageable pressure domestically on demand for services and fed inflation into the local fiscal health, leaving the locals reeling under the cost-of-living pressures. That necessitated lowering the numbers coming in, which generated the new narrative of maintaining the integrity of the system and controls in place fighting the rogue operatives and so on.

“The changes coming into force today will help restore integrity to our international education system, and create a migration system which is fairer, smaller and better able to deliver for Australia,” Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said in a statement.

International students from India and China, the two biggest source countries will be most affected. According to the Indian High Commission in Canberra, approximately 120,277 Indian students were enrolled in Australian educational institutions as of August 2023.

How many go back after completing their education is also a matter that the government is looking into. Many international students choose to enroll in a second course once their chosen course finishes and manage to stay on. And many more enroll in a university courser and get visa to come to Australia and then transfer to a cheaper and longer course in a private college where they find it easier to find ways to work more and study less.

According to Judith Sloan, contributing Economics editor of The Australian, “it is a bit of a stretch to call international student education an export indus­try generating foreign cur­rency…Notwithstanding the visa conditions in relation to financial capacity, most international students have to work here to pay student fees and living expenses. There is no sense in which this is an export activity.”

She completely smashes the myth of international education being an export for Australia: “In many ways, international education looks more like a racket than a normal industry, benefiting the institutions and the highly paid staff but creating few spillover benefits for the wider community.”

Nowhere near this, but the government finally seems to be waking up to the reality of international education.

In 2022-23, more than 150,000 or over 30% of international students were on a second or subsequent student visa.

It is not surprising thus when the government says it was also closing loopholes in visa rules that allowed foreign students to continuously extend their stay in Australia.

The latest move follows a raft of actions since late last year to tighten the student visa rules.