Key Points
- The fee for international students to apply to study in Australia has risen to $1,600 from $710.
- Student visa application fees in the US and Canada cost about $185 and $110 respectively.
- Unlike other measures to tighten student migration that start in July, this change hadn’t previously been announced.
On 1 July, the fee rose from $710 to $1,600.
Data released in March by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed net migration rose 60 per cent to a record 548,800 people in the year to the end of September 2023.
The Australian government has been introducing measures in an effort to reduce the number of migrants coming to Australia, including those coming as students. Source: Getty / kate_sept2004
The rise in fees makes applying for a student visa for Australia far more expensive than in competing countries like the United States and Canada, where they cost about $185 and $110 respectively.
The government said it was also closing loopholes in visa rules that allowed foreign students to continuously extend their stay in Australia, after the number of students on a second or subsequent student visa spiked by over 30 per cent to more than 150,000 in 2022–23.
International education is one of Australia’s largest export industries and was worth $36.4 billion to the economy in the 2022-23 financial year.