To the end of May this year, there were 330,500 approved student visas, back level with 2016 numbers, and well below the 577,300 approved in 2022-23.
Nonetheless, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has promised to slash migration numbers in a bid to improve housing affordability and take pressure off city infrastructure and services.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the increase in fees would help “clean up” the international education sector.
“This sector has the power to drive growth and opportunity for our country but to get there, we’ve got to work with quality providers to clean it up,” Ms O’Neil said.
“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.”
However, migration expert Abul Rizvi described the decision as “really poor policy” that will do little to deter those most determined to enter the country on a student visa, particularly those with perverse motivations.
“This is really poor policy as it will do little to deter students who struggle to get into university in their own countries or into one [of] our competitors, but it will deter those high-performing students who may have options,” said Dr Rizvi.
“This is shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Australia already had the second most expensive visa application fees among the major student markets. Hopeful students pay the equivalent of $345 in New Zealand, $285 in the US, $170 in Canada and $950 in the UK.
‘Exploitation’
Phil Honeywood, executive director of the International Education Association of Australia, said it was another blow to a sector that was already “facing death by a thousand cuts”.
“Given that it is a non-refundable fee this is exploitation of overseas young people at its worst,” Mr Honeywood said.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says visa price increases will help restore integrity to the international education system. Alex Ellinghausen
The additional revenue will be used to help implement measures including those in the recent higher education review, known as the universities accord, as well as financial support for local apprentices and employers.
“In practice, we are robbing Ranjit to pay for Richard,” Mr Honeywood said.
Mr Rizvi said the government has provided no evidence that the fee increase will not deter high-quality students, as it suggests, and that because the application fee is non-refundable it “makes applying for a visa a costly gamble”.
The most recent data shows that one in every four visas are currently being rejected, down from one in 10 a year ago.
Mr Rizvi said the midnight drop of the fee increase was designed to stop a last-minute surge in applications that would have happened if the measure had been announced in the budget.