The number of international students coming into Australia will be capped at 270,000 in 2025, bringing the influx back to pre-pandemic levels.

This will allow for 145,000 enrolments at public universities, 95,000 foreign student commencements in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, and 30,000 places at other universities and providers.

However, the changes announced on Tuesday will come into force only if the federal government can pass legislation.

Education Minister Jason Clare said there were about 10 per cent more international students in universities than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and 50 per cent more in private VET providers.

“Students are back, but so are the stocks of people that are seeking to exploit this industry to make a quick buck,” he said in Sydney on Tuesday.

“What it means for universities is that they will have roughly the same number of students starting next year as they did last year for the entire sector.”

Media Release: Improving the sustainability of international education.https://t.co/2KXvNCudHg

— Jason Clare MP (@JasonClareMP) August 27, 2024

The government has instituted ministerial direction 107, which throttles student visas as a “de facto limit setter” aimed at bringing the system under control.

But some in the university sector say it favours affluent Chinese students who attend inner-city universities, while affecting regional institutions with a more diverse student base.

Ministerial direction 107 will be replaced by the new cap when it passes Parliament, Clare said.

The federal government has outlined the number of foreign students each university can take and will work with them to finalise the 2025 levels.

Universities have long criticised the idea of a student cap, with Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy claiming overseas learners had been treated as “cannon fodder” in political battles over migration.

Business groups have also raised concerns caps would limit investment in domestic students, and affect the economy because many small business rely on overseas students.

The National Tertiary Education Union has called on the government to guarantee the student level limits will not lead to job losses.

“University staff are the critical ingredient in delivering a better higher education system for students and society as a whole,” NTEU national president Alison Barnes said.

“Job cuts at a time when universities have been chronically underfunded for a decade would be devastating.”

International student enrolments have jumped from just over 520,000 to more than 810,000 in the past two years.

In the 2022-23 financial year, overseas net migration peaked as 500,000 people arrived in Australia, hundreds of thousands more than in previous years.

The federal government’s broad migration plan has taken aim at foreign students as part of its attempts to halve overseas migration to 250,000 by 2025.

-AAP