Australia was the best choice when Pakistani native Ali Bajiwa wanted to pursue a doctorate in agricultural science. Research in this field is cutting edge, universities are highly ranked, students from overseas are welcomed domestically, and international education is called “the biggest export we don’t dig out of the ground.”
Bajiwa arrived 10 years ago, specializing in weed control. He took his family and became a naturalized citizen. He spent years in the country town of Wagga Wagga, working in the state government and ongoing research in weed science. He currently teaches and is a homeowner at Latrobe University in Melbourne.
But those who want to follow Bajwa’s path face a new reality.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle have changed to reducing international students as a way to curb affordable housing, a crisis at the very top of voters’ minds ahead of next month’s election. The argument is that this has reduced demand for rentals and starter homes and lower prices. This is a major change for Australia, and its economy relies on mining, but once saw education as a “super-growth sector” and tried to compete for students with the US, UK and Canada.
“We get far more than we lose to international students,” said Bajiwa, 35.
Last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government tried to impose restrictions on international students but failed to pass the law. Since then, student visa fees have increased and slowed processing, and student arrivals from overseas have decreased. Opposition leader Peter Dutton has pledged to set far more strict limits on international students, cutting an additional 30,000 people with a cap on new arrivals of 240,000 a year, tripling the maximum visa fee to up to AUD 5,000, or about $3,200.
Strict border controls during the coronavirus pandemic have locked out many international students. However, Australia then worked together to get them back – temporarily removing work restrictions and offering rebates with visa fees. This led to a record surge in students arriving in the country in 2023 and 2024, with the first time that last year, the first international student registration exceeding 1 million.
In September, Dutton spoke about students applying to stay in the country after completing their degrees, in clear references to refugees and asylum seekers.
Australia has long been benefiting from immigration, which has supported the workforce and the younger demographics. Approximately 30% of the population is born overseas, with nearly half having at least one parent born overseas.
However, not only here, but our views have changed. The US has dramatically scrutinized and revoked student visas, casting the right to study domestically as a privilege that can be deprived of arbitrarily. Canada has put a brake on the influx of students from overseas. The UK has set up new restrictions that said it would prevent people from working in the country using student visas.
Australia has long been permitted, even encouraging major universities to rely on international students to expand their campuses and research programs. Foreigners pay far more fees than domestic students and donate a significant portion of their school’s income.
“Australian international students have been used as a form of the export industry for quite some time,” said Peter Hurley, professor of education policy at the University of Victoria. “It was just like international education, just as they promoted the sheep industry.”
The post-pandemic surge in international students coincided with Australia’s severe housing affordability crisis. The value of homes has skyrocketed compared to income, up about 45% since 2020. Sydney was the second most affordable city in the world in 2023, after Hong Kong, based on a comparison of median home prices and median income.
Although several factors have contributed to the crunch of housing supply, including labor shortages, rising construction costs and regulatory issues, international students have created convenient, unvoting segments to target as a quick fix for politicians.
This sentiment was reflected in questions asked Albanese, the Central Left Labour Party, and Dutton, who leads the Liberal Party, in the first discussion of this election cycle.
“We have a lot of students visiting people who are buying homes within urban areas,” said Janine, 74-year-old woman. “When will one of our governments come out and say, is Australia belonging to Australians?”
Andrew Norton, professor of higher education policy at Monash Business School, said there is no doubt that the number of students who wanted to arrive in the country after graduation contributed to the demand side of the housing shortage.
At the same time, he said the current spikes are extraordinary due to the upsurge in demand during the pandemic and fewer students returning home. The proposed cap will be a short-term solution rather than a more thoughtful and comprehensive migration policy reform necessary, he added.
Critics also note that international students share homes that are primarily occupying apartments and concentrated near the university, but this is not the type of home that first-time home buyers usually wanted.
Clifford Suryana, a senior student at the University of Sydney who studies law and commerce from Surabaya, Indonesia, said he learned English from an Australian teacher who lived in his hometown. When it was time to think about university, he said he felt a general affinity for Australia and also thought that he had a diplomatic relationship with business with Indonesia that would help with career opportunities.
He said many of his fellow international students, who make up almost half of the University of Sydney student body and account for four-fifths of the school’s tuition fees, contribute far more to Australian society than they would take from it.
“Most of them would want to work in Australia or return to their former country with the knowledge they gained from Australia,” he said. “From my point of view, it would only be good for Australia.”
