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Australia has announced it will cap international student intake at 2,70,000 in 2025 to deal with record levels of immigration that have driven up housing rental prices. Australian Education Minister Jason Keller said today that the restrictions would affect not only higher education courses, but also apprenticeship and vocational training courses. The move will impact Indian students who want to go abroad for higher studies, especially those from Punjab where there are a large number of such students. In June 2022, Australia forecast an international student enrollment of 510,000. This number will fall to 375,000 in 2023. Chancellor Sunil Jaggi said: "Australia's immigration representatives, universities will allocate quotas by country and then by state."
He further said, Students who were preparing for admission in February will be affected by this announcement and students from Punjab will be the worst affected. A student from Haryana who wants to study nursing in Australia said, “It will affect my career.” “The cost of studying in Australia is very high, so my family is taking loans to finance my education.” Another student said: "The Indian government should present the students' views to the Australian government." Notably, the Australian education minister, who visited India last year, signed an agreement to expand domestic access to Australian higher education institutions for Indian students.
According to the Indian Foreign Ministry, about 122,000 students from India study in Australia. Quad Partners India is the fourth most popular destination for Indian students after Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Australia has also increased the non-refundable visa fee for international students from A$710 to A$1,600, another move likely aimed at reducing immigration rates. Canada also announced new restrictions on its temporary foreign worker program. From September 26th, companies will be allowed to hire up to 10 percent of their workforce as foreign low-wage workers, previously it was 20 percent. The decision to limit the number of low-wage foreign workers was made in response to rising unemployment in Canada. The overall unemployment rate reached 6.4% and the youth unemployment rate reached 14.2%.
