Under changes announced in Labor’s overhaul of the migration system, designed to weed out applicants using the student visa scheme as a backdoor to gain work rights, foreign students will no longer be penalised for revealing a desire to emigrate to Australia in their visa application.

In a document sent to the international education sector on Friday outlining details of the reforms, the Department of Home Affairs informed industry leaders that the transition from the Genuine Temporary Entrant requirement to a new Genuine Student Test will take place on March 23.

The test will ask international students direct questions about their links to Australia, for an “explanation of their choice of course” and the benefits the course will provide them, replacing a requirement to write a 300-word statement. Students will also be asked for details on the visa type they currently hold, their reasons for applying for a student visa, and their study history.

The change comes as the sector’s peak bodies prepare to meet on Wednesday to discuss the impacts of a raft of integrity reforms targeting the sector, as part of a push from the Albanese government to halve net migration in the next two years. 

Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia chief executive Troy Williams has criticised the government for introducing the changes with just over a week’s notice, accusing Labor of introducing “punitive regulations”.

“ITECA members were informed of this implementation date on March 15, an eight-day period in which to get ready for implementation of one of the most significant changes to the student visa framework in more than eight years,” he said.

Mr Williams said the change, which was one of a suite of reforms announced under the Migration Strategy in December, was an attempt by the government to address the “regulatory failure” after it allowed a record number of international students to enter the country to address crippling labour shortages in the wake of the pandemic.

“To deal with this regulatory failure, the government is implementing additional and more punitive regulations,” he said. “Red tape sales must be going through the roof in Canberra.”

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has sought to bring down the number of temporary migrants by tackling integrity issues with the international student visa by cracking down on students whose main reason for coming to Australia was not study, known as “non-genuine students”.

“A sector-appointed special working group was set up months ago to advise on these changes, which involved broader consultation across the sector,” a spokesman for Ms O’Neil said.

“We make no apology for working with the sector to end rorts and reintroduce integrity to our higher education system.”

International Education Association of Australia CEO Phil Honeywood said he was broadly supportive of the reforms, which would boost the government’s efforts to attract high-quality international students by no longer penalising those who reveal a desire to emigrate.

“However, the key concern is that the implementation date of March 23 is very early for education providers and their agents to have the requirements systems in place,” he said.

The levy, which is effectively a redistributive tax within the university sector, would help fund Education Minister Jason Clare’s plan to boost the numbers of less-privileged students in higher education, including those from low socio-economic status backgrounds and from ­regional and remote areas.

The Universities Accord ­interim report last June urged the government to consider a levy on international students, with the revenue raised used to pay for priorities across the ­higher education sector.

But following warnings from the international education ­industry that a tax on inter­national student fees would be seen as ­targeting international students and turn them away from ­Australia, a more general levy based on other revenue indicators is seen as a better option – ­although the new measure, while designed differently, is still expected to hit the universities, mainly in the Group of Eight, that earn big sums from overseas students.

Latest figures show that, in 2022, the University of Sydney earned $1.4bn from inter­national student fees, Monash University earned $906m, the University of Melbourne earned $877m, the University of NSW $753m, and the University of Queensland $614m.

Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson said that the Go8 universities remained “opposed to any revenue-raising measure that effectively comes on the back of international ­students”.

“Any measure which taxes our general revenue is effectively a backdoor tax on international students. It is unfair, not in the ­national interest and poor public policy.

“It also undermines our hard-won and enduring successes in international education and risks damaging our global reputation,” Ms Thomson said.

“It ignores the fact that this is a quick-fix solution to what is a fundamentally structural issue and that is how do we, as a nation, fund our … research effort.”

She said the Go8 universities invested $7.7bn annually into research and received only $2.8bn from governments.

The Universities Accord final report, produced by an expert panel chaired by former NSW chief scientist Mary O’Kane, is expected to be released by Mr Clare in advance of the Universities Australia annual conference next week in Canberra.

However, until the government releases its response to the report – which will not come immediately – it won’t be clear which accord recommendations it will accept.

The less-wealthy universities, which stand to benefit from the redistributive levy, are also suffering from the federal government’s deliberate slowdown in processing of international student visas as it works to reduce Australia’s net migration levels.

Two weeks ago, 16 universities, mainly those designated by the Home Affairs Department as having higher visa risk levels, wrote to Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil that they stood to lose $310m in international student fees this year unless the department rapidly cleared the backlog of unprocessed student visas.

Last Friday, Ms O’Neil had an online meeting with most of the vice-chancellors who signed the letter but universities say the situation is little improved.

Charles Sturt University said on Tuesday it was still waiting for visas to be processed for half of its new cohort of international students.

James Cook University vice-chancellor Simon Biggs said the government had not yet changed the student visa settings.

Professor Scott, a non-academic who was a newcomer to higher education when appointed to lead the University of Sydney in 2021, is well practised in dealing with government after previous stints as head of the NSW Education Department and managing director of the ABC.

The Go8 will have a source of continuity in chief executive Vicki Thomson, who has been in the role since 2015 and been reappointed for the next five years.

The final report of the government’s Universities Accord review of higher education, to be released late next month, is likely to put a tax on universities’ international student income – which Go8 institutions rely on to fund their research budgets – and also slow-walk calls to boost Australia’s research spending.

Professor Scott said an international student tax would be a “dangerous and short-term policy intervention”.

He said that national research performance – in which the Go8 universities dominate – was a standout area of Australian educational achievement compared to, for example, the poor participation rates for early childhood education or lacklustre school performance.

“So I think it would be very short-term for any government or policymaker to turn around and say, ‘We will target the one area where the country has been doing exceptionally well in global terms’,” Professor Scott said.

“Revenue from international students has provided the investment that has been necessary in research in this country that has come at the same time as government … and business investment in research has been in significant long-term decline.”

He said he understood why the government’s work on the Accord had focused on increasing the number of disadvantaged students who get a university education and ensuring graduates have the skills required for modern jobs.

“But to focus on those things does not take away at all from the importance of research … particularly for the long-term strategic growth of the country,” Professor Scott said.

“We shouldn’t be in a position where we’re sacrificing our strength in one area to make further investments in others.”

In a submission lodged this week to a Senate committee examining a bill making changes to the Australian Research Council, the Go8 urges that 65 per cent of ARC grant funding to universities should be allocated to basic research.

Professor Scott said a commitment to basic research was a necessary foundation for future success. “Unless there is a guaranteed investment in basic research now, there’s nothing to translate and commercialise in five, 10, 15 years from now,” he said.

Professor Scott’s two-year term as Go8 chair takes him up to 2026, when the group will admit the new Adelaide University, a merger of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. Because UniSA does not have a high concentration of research, the newly merged Adelaide University will not, at least for some years, fit the research-intensive profile of Group of Eight members.

The University of Adelaide, a Go8 member, will cease to exist and Professor Scott said the group had debated whether to admit the new Adelaide University.

“We decided we wanted to keep that important university in South Australia in the Go8. I think there’s an expectation that its research performance will improve over time, and that will be a focus,” he said.

The current 81 per cent approval rate is down from 86 per cent in 2022-23, 91.5 per cent in 2021-22, and 89.9 per cent pre-pandemic in 2018-19.

Just over 139,000 overseas student visas have been approved since July 1, which is why this year's migration numbers to drop well below last year's record of 577,295 visas granted.

The lowered approval percentage is part of the federal government's effort to dramatically decrease the number of 'non-genuine' students travelling to Australia, who are more interested in working rather than studying.

For example, students who apply to complete a diploma-level vocational subject are less likely to be admitted than those applying to learn sought-after skills, like those required to work in engineering or technology fields.

A Department of Home Affairs spokeswoman told The Australian visa approvals need to uphold the integrity of the recently shaken-up student visa program.

“The department has seen increasing levels of integrity concerns across the student visa program,” she said.

“The department received higher levels of fraudulent documents, fraud related to English language testing, non-genuine claims and non-genuine subsequent marriages being presented in student visa applications.

“The department will refuse a visa application to non-genuine applicants who do not meet regulatory requirements and where fraud is present.”

The government's restrictions also hope to shift perception of Australia on the international stage as a high-quality education provider.

Highly inflated international student numbers have also been blamed for straining housing availability and government services.

"[Universities] do not want Australia to be known as a country where you come here, you get exploited, you don't get educated properly and frankly the course you signed up on wasn't quite what it looked like," the Minister for Home Affairs Clare O'Neil said.

"So we've got a bit of a repair job to do … the things we are doing are important for that sector. They're generally supported by providers of education and that's because they know we've got to fix this, otherwise it will really go off the rails."

There is a current global trend of limiting student migration, with Canada announcing a two-year cap on foreign students that will cut numbers by 35 per cent, and Britain forbidding its overseas students from bringing dependants with them.

The Catholic university with campuses in Sydney in NSW and Fremantle and Broome in WA has over 11,000 enrolled students and says it offers students a 'unique', personalised and outcome-based education.

Notre Dame deputy vice-chancellor (international and partnerships) Professor Michelle Campbell said OIEG's vast recruitment reach is a positive jump from the university's small international office, which has been a barrier to welcoming a more diverse student population.

OIEG will integrate overseas students into Notre Dame's Fremantle and Sydney campuses through its 2500 total recruitment agents in 50 locations.

"Putting international students and domestic students together in a classroom is an eye-opening experience for all," Professor Campbell said.

"And we do need diversification, particularly in our university. It's only an advantage for the domestic and the international students that do enrol in programmes at Notre Dame."

The university's 2026 strategic plan has five "pillars", one of which is universality, that 'recognises Notre Dame is part of something bigger and deeper than itself.'

The plan explains the university will achieve this through growing its international partnerships, international student presence and research partnerships; and through developing an international component of its core curriculum.

Both parties in the partnership are not concerned about the recently tightened restrictions on international students because Notre Dame is a smaller university that is interested in 'up and coming' areas like Sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia.

"It's likely to have an impact on the [whole] sector ... I don't think it'll be any different to the recruitment that's going on all over the world and with recruitment agents for universities," Professor Campbell explained.

"We'll work with the new rules, but I think both organisations are very experienced in this space and I don't see it as a significant problem at all."

OIEG managing director for Australasia Neil Fitzroy said the migration plan's new rules aren't a worry because the partnership will focus more on creating a positive student experience, rather than hitting short term recruitment targets.

"This is very much becoming an integrated, embedded partnership around ... how we market to international students, how we integrate them and make them feel welcome in their first weeks, months, years, how we look at future programme development," he said.

Notre Dame's ethos is centered around producing students that go on to 'do good for the community', emphasising workplace experiences during study to help its students graduate 'job-ready'.

Professor Campbell said its Catholic values equip staff and management to see students as individuals, not numbers, to better focus on supporting them and their learning.

"Being a smaller university, the class sizes are smaller. The students do feel like they're an individual and they do get the one-on-one support," she said.

"They also are very well-prepared for employment in some of our practise disciplines like nursing and teaching.

"They do more experience hours than other universities in the country, and a lot of students see that as a great advantage, as do employers because they're very much more work ready when they do come to the end of their programmes.

Countries attracting the most Aussie ex-pats – ranked from least expensive living costs and tuition fees – are New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, the US, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Japan, according to an analysis of UNESCO Student Mobility data.

It comes as average student loan debts in Australia have increased from $15,200 to $24,800 in the past decade, with the federal government last year placing a 7.1 per cent increase on outstanding HECS-HELP student loans in the largest bump of the past 30 years.

Increases in the cost of living have also deterred international students from travelling to Australia in favour of subsidised education across Europe, where enrolments were open for the autumn 2024 semester, according to an artificial intelligence platform developed to search and rank studying costs.

Erudera, the European company behind the AI platform, revealed Australia has struggled to return to the pre-pandemic levels for international students due to increasing costs for both tuition and living.

“The higher education landscape includes significant affordable college options that students may not be fully familiar with,” said Erudera's Alma Miftari.

She said lower-cost institutions are being overshadowed by their big-name counterparts.

“However, these lesser-known universities often offer commendable academic programs at significantly lower tuition fees, and studying abroad offers a rich tapestry of benefits that extend well beyond financial considerations.”

For student Stefan Djukic, however, it was Australia’s cost of living rather than the melting pot of experiences that drove him from Sydney to Europe, where he is studying for a masters degree at Belgrade’s Singidunum University.

The 23-year-old had resigned himself to repaying a HECS-HELP loan over 20 years until a chance conversation with a friend led him to Serbia, where tuition fees start at $1655 per year.

“What appealed to me was that there was a much more personalised experience as the classes – all had less than 30 people – and the teachers would go out of their way to help you learn, a luxury that would cost exponentially more in Australia,” Djukic said.

Australia has 13,268 students studying abroad, with the most in English-speaking countries, including the US and UK.

For Australians, Erudera found that free and nominal-fee education can still be found in countries across Europe:

Finland: Tuition from $6626 per year for English-taught degrees, with an average cost of living between $1620 to $2147 per month, including rent. Foreigners can work up to 30 hours per week while studying. Two-year post-grad work visa available.

Germany: Free to minimal tuition with a cost of living between $1722 to $2115 per month. Foreigners can work full-time for 120 days or part-time for 240 half days without a permit. Eighteen-month post-grad work visa available.

Greece: Tuition from $2485 per year with a cost of living of between $1260 to $1482 per month. Work allowed for 20 hours per week during the semester and 40 hours during vacations.

Iceland: Free or minimal tuition but a higher cost of living at between $2267 to $3273 per month. Students can work up to 15 hours per week during the academic year, but a permit is required. Six-month post-grad work visa available.

Luxembourg: Tuition from $1988 for English-taught degrees, or free/minimal for degrees taught in French, German or Luxembourgish. Nine-month post-grad work visa available. The cost of living is between $2342 to $3372 per month, with work allowed for 346 hours during the academic year.

Malta: Tuition from $1789 with a cost of living between $1570 to $2103 per month. All foreign nationals require a permit to work. Six-month post-grad work visa available.

Netherlands: Tuition from $9940 with average cost of living between $1930 to $2726 per month. Work allowed for up to 16 hours per week and full-time during the summer. One-year post-grad work visa available.

Switzerland: Tuition from $662 per year with an average cost of living between $3101 to $4002 per month. International students can work up to 15 hours per week during school term and full-time during summer. Six-month post-grad work visa available.

The union said overseas students are being disproportionately affected by rising food and rent prices and adhering to tight housing and transport rules is making it worse.

International students can only work a maximum of 48 hours a fortnight, unless they work in the aged care sector, and cannot apply for many education-related travel subsidies.

The Union recommends the establishment of migrant worker centres in each state for workplace rights advice, the reconsideration of work hour restrictions on student visas, and an extension of travel subsidies.

Covid-era laws allowed migrant students to work unlimited hours and study remotely, but were canned in July this year.

Unions NSW assistant secretary Thomas Costa said these restrictions can lead to many international students accepting 'substandard' living conditions and being underpaid by employers.

"Our data paints a grim reality of exploitation and hardship among temporary migrant workers, with international students facing the brunt of the housing crisis," Mr Costa said.

"It is high time that educational institutions step up to provide adequate housing, and that the NSW government extends travel concessions to international students, ensuring parity with other students."

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that rent has risen 14 per cent in the year to July 2023 for new tenants, which the Union pointed out overwhelmingly includes overseas students studying in Australia.

"Temporary migrants contributed $29 billion to the Australian economy in 2022," Mr Costa said.

"Yet, they are met with reinstated caps on work hours and a lack of support services. Universities and the government must act to avert a deepening of this crisis."

International student levy

International students could soon also be subject to a tax for coming to learn in Australia, that has potential to bring $1b each year to the tertiary education sector.

The federal government is considering taxing international students to help cut soaring migration numbers, which are also contributing to the nation’s rental crisis.

However, the University of Adelaide (Adelaide) said they fear the potential impost could damage Australia's reputation as a student destination and have a negative economic impact.

An Adelaide spokeswoman said international students brought “enormous benefits” to SA, both "culturally and economically".

"A levy of any kind … will risk the enduring success of the sector, risk our global reputation, and is not in the national interest," she said.

The Australian Universities Accord interim report raised the idea of a levy on international students, which the Group of Eight universities rejected.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said he has not yet received briefings from the federal government about the levy.

"As a state, we’ve made changes to try and grow the number of international students we can accommodate without that being at the expense of domestic education," the Premier said.

"So we would want to make sure any changes that occur federally don’t undermine that."

A tax, or levy, looks very likely to be a recommendation of the final report of the government’s Universities Accord review due to be released in February, which would lead to it being enacted in next year’s federal budget.

There have been a series of nods, winks, things that those in the know have said, and things they have refused to say, which leads to the conclusion that such a tax is on its way.

And don’t overlook the convenience factor.

Viewed from a strictly electoral point of view, a tax on international students sits at the level of political nirvana. It’s like a cake that gets bigger the more you eat of it.

It would indeed be the government’s magic pudding, pulling in revenue with absolutely no political backlash.

In fact, at this time of rising house prices and high rents and growing fear about high migration levels, taxing international students is a political positive for the Albanese government. It helps fend off opposition attacks on high levels of temporary migration, of which students are a major source, which Liberal leader Peter Dutton is trying to turn into an issue to win the 2025 election.

I was first to report that the international student tax was being considered by the Universities Accord panel before it released its interim report in July. The report recommended it be considered. Then the tax recently won a notable endorsement from Australian National University economist Bruce Chapman, who is the architect of Australia’s much admired HECS student loan system.

Chapman strongly backs the tax saying that it is unlikely to discourage international students – he believes its price elasticity of demand is low – and that the older universities that have enrolled the most international students have benefited enormously from public support for a long time, back to their founding over a century ago.

Chapman also has the ear of Clare, who has declared several times that he is consulting the economist about his higher education changes.

For Clare, a decision to back a tax would be easy. He wants to expand the university system to take in more of the students who currently miss out – those from low socio economic backgrounds, Indigenous communities, and rural and regional areas. He also wants to undo the Morrison government’s university fee system which puts high $16,000 annual fees on some courses – law, humanities, business and social sciences – while others are a quarter as much. He can’t do it without raising more revenue.

International student fees are worth about $10bn a year so the maths shows that a 10 per cent levy would bring in $1bn.

To try to assuage universities and other education providers who enrol international students, the government is likely to promise to spend it in the sector.

Inevitably some universities will lose. Key losers are the big five, which enrol the lion’s share of high-fee-paying Chinese students – Sydney, UNSW, Melbourne, Monash and Queensland. Although if Chapman is right about price elasticity, they might not lose too much.

In fact it’s more likely to be students from poorer countries such as India who will be more sensitive to a tax-induced price rise. This could badly hurt bottom to mid tier universities that have a lower price point and are attractive to students from India and other less wealthy countries.

If independent education providers are also subject to the tax they will be hit hard. It’s less likely that they will see any of the benefits that could come from increased government spending to encourage disadvantaged students to go to university.

One of their industry groups, the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia, is campaigning hard against the tax. It could make Australian education less affordable and damage the country’s reputation, it says.

One thing certain is that such a tax, if introduced, will never go away. And, once there, it can easily be diverted to general revenue and its initial purpose, of funding worthwhile programs in higher education, could be lost.

Any First Nation student completing a science, technology, engineering or maths degree (STEM) in an Australian university could apply to be in the first NISA cohort earlier this year.

The successful applicants, selected on academic merit, are:

• Ngarrindjeri man Linden Beaumont, Monash University
• Kamilaroi woman Cedar Lett, Griffith University
• Palawa man Edward (Ted) Vanderfeen, Western Sydney University (WSU)
• Limilngan and Mudburra man Lincoln Bourke, University of Sydney
• Gundungurra woman Tully Mahr, University of Melbourne (UoM)
• Tharawal woman Renee Wootton, University of New South Wales and Monash University

Due to a timetable clash, Ms Wootton is completing the internship in the near future. The remaining five flew out in August after completing a space bootcamp, training in aerodynamics, robotics, astrophysics and planetary science.

They are currently being mentored by a NASA scientist or engineer at the JPL site, and are participating in space missions, rovers, robotics for unexplored ocean worlds, robot perception control, AI and path planning projects.

WSU engineering student Ted Vanderfeen said his favourite part of the internship so far has been choosing what Aussie music NASA plays as an alarm clock on Mars.

"A tradition here at the [JPL] is to play a wake up song in the operations centre from which the Perseverance Rover [on Mars] is controlled,' he said.

"The rover operates on Martian days (known as Sols), so it will ‘sleep’ during the night, and drive and run experiments during the daytime.

"I got to meet an Australian-born engineer that works within the operations centre, and he asked me to recommend Australian artists to ‘wake up’ the Perseverance Rover and the NASA Engineers in the operations centre."

Mr Vanderfeen said he is keen to bring his knowledge back to Australia to continue a career in the space sector, and learn how to better the lives of people on Earth using technological advancements developed for space.

UoM student Tully Mahr said she applied to the internship because she has always been interested in space exploration, especially at NASA.

"During this internship, I've had the privilege of interacting with many inspiring individuals who are not only experts in their respective fields, but also some of the brightest minds on the planet," Ms Mahr said.

"Engaging in conversations and receiving mentorship from these remarkable people has undoubtedly been the highlight of my experience."

Head of NISA, Wadjak/Ballardong Noongar man and Monash professor Christopher Lawrence said the pioneering cohort is making Australia proud, representing our STEM learning overseas.

"These amazing young Indigenous STEM students will be working on ongoing NASA projects, including ocean exploration vehicles and characterising the microorganisms within the International Space Station," Professor Lawrence said at the NISA announcement.

"It is incredible that we are able to empower our Indigenous youth to learn from the best in the world so we can nurture Australian capabilities in space research, and ultimately it would be great to see NISA produce the world’s first Aboriginal astronaut."

The Australian Space Agency supports the program, hoping to expand Australia's knowledge of First Nations people and build an Indigenous STEM workforce through the program.

"These students are going to be exposed to cutting-edge space missions and will develop knowledge and skills they can bring home to our space and tech community," Mr Palermo said.

"As we continue to grow our space sector here at home, we have an opportunity to do that in a uniquely Australian way by embracing thousands of years of First Nations knowledge in making sense of the land, by looking to the sky."

The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade inquiry’s interim report, tabled in the parliament on Thursday, said regulators had to “weed out disreputable (education) providers and send a strong message that Australia is serious about protecting the integrity of international education”.

The report said radical action should be considered including suspending or cancelling the approvals for some colleges to enrol international students and a 12 month pause on new approvals for colleges to enrol international students.

The federal government has already threatened to suspend colleges with high visa refusal rates, saying in August that it was willing to employ never-before-used powers to do this.

The report also called for stepped up assessment of vocational education colleges and a “fit and proper person test” to operate a college.

Deborah O’Neill, chair of the trade subcommittee which produced the report, said it was an opportunity to “rebuild and reset” Australia’s “complex and important” international education sector.

“It is essential to ensure the integrity of the sector and that the quality of education provided to international students is the highest possible”, Senator O’Neill said.

The committee report also called for tougher regulation of education agents who funnel most international students to colleges and universities.

It said students needed more consumer protection, including standard refund conditions, and there should be mandatory disclosure of all payments made to agents by education institutions.

The report welcomed the federal government’s recent announcement banning education agent commissions for international students transferring between education institutions onshore in Australia. It said the government needed to ensure that the ban was watertight and that commissions were not disguised, for example, as marketing costs.

The ban on commissions for onshore transfers is aimed to restrict the practice whereby shonky agents enrol international students in a university or college with a high reputation (which makes obtaining a visa easier), but the student later transfers to a dodgy college with much lower fees and poor education outcomes.

These schemes are not for an education purpose, but a backdoor way of bringing young people into Australia to work and, in August, the government banned such transfers within an international student’s first six months in Australia.

Such schemes also hurt universities and other high reputation education providers, which initially enrol such students. Students in these schemes are labelled a migration risk by the Department of Home Affairs and this damages the visa rating of the education institution that initially enrolled the student.

The committee said the government should “consider adjustments to the student visa system so that visa risk follows the student, shifting to the receiving providers when students transfer onshore to other providers”.

International Education Association of Australia CEO Phil Honeywood said there was universal agreement in the sector that tough action was needed against “the minority of education providers and agents who do the wrong thing”.

“Many of the recommendations are about protecting students from being exploited and thereby damaging Australia’s world class reputation,” he said.