Listen to Australian and world news and follow trending topics with
Huzaifa Nawaz is in her third year studying Accounting at Curtin University.
He says a range of factors led him to choose Perth as a place to study.
“There are a lot of reasons why I chose Australia specifically. It’s not very far from Bangladesh, the time zone is quite close too, and then the weather conditions are quite similar to that of Bangladesh And I compared the university rankings, and I thought, wow, Australian universities are doing pretty well, they’re ranked well.
Huzaifa is one of around 970,000 international students currently registered to study in Australia.
Around 440,000 international students started their studies this year alone.
Labor thinks that’s too much: it had a plan to cap new enrollments at 270,000 a year by giving each institution across the country its own cap on the number of students it could take.
Universities had already been informed of the limit, the bill was before the Senate and, with the Coalition calling for a cap on students, it was something Labor hoped they would support.
But at the last minute, everything changed.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says the bill won’t solve the problem.
“This is a disaster for the rest of the sector, and we are not going to support a bill that creates a bigger mess from the government on top of what they have already done.”
The coalition wants to limit migration, fearing that too many arrivals will worsen the housing crisis and expose families to additional pressures linked to the cost of living.
They believe the bill does not go far enough and pledge to introduce a bill to limit student numbers if they win the next election.
This means that the limit, which was to apply from January, would be postponed for at least a year.
Education Minister Jason Clare criticized the move, saying the bill would allow the government of the day to change the cap to what it believes is an appropriate level.
“Parliament’s legislation gives the government the power to set a cap on the number of international students who come to the country in a given year, period. So you can set that figure at 100,000, 200,000 or zero Now this is what Peter Dutton said he wanted, and now he’s voting against it.”
Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan denied the coalition had changed its position on immigration.
ANNA: “Are you now the party of a greater Australia?”
TEHAN: “No, Labor is the party of a greater Australia.”
ANNA: “But can I stop you there. You have just announced a delay on university caps. So, in terms of migration, you are now the party that wants to have, at least in the short term, a greater number of migrants?
TEHAN: “No, not at all. There’s no reason why Labor can’t use pre-existing metrics to stop the Great Australia approach they’re taking.”
The Sydney Morning Herald has since reported that the coalition’s education spokesperson, Sarah Henderson, spoke at an event bringing together migration agents and private colleges a month before blocking the plan. law.
The framework currently in place is Ministerial Directive 107.
Introduced by then Home Secretary Clare O’Neil last December, it created a priority framework for student visa approval decisions.
This meant that visas were prioritized for students wanting to attend better universities, wanting to take multiple courses, and coming from low-risk countries.
Regional Universities Network chief executive Alec Webb says this has had an impact on regional universities.
“For regional universities, Ministerial Directive 107 has had a truly devastating impact on the number of international students studying in regional Australia. In the last year alone, we have seen a 34% reduction in international student enrollment. What worries us most The question is if the bill is not passed, where is the certainty for Australian universities. »
For Huzaifa Nawaz, it seems that international students are largely to blame.
“International students feel like scapegoats. Although they contribute enormously to the economy, from paying tuition to living expenses, we contribute billions and billions of dollars every year.”
And it would be better if the government focused on improving the problems.
“Australia itself, as if it were one of the leading study abroad destinations, would lose its competitive edge if it focused on capping student limitations, rather than increasing accommodation and services of this type.”
He warns it could deter all students from coming to Australia – which would deal a devastating blow to a $34 billion-a-year industry.
“Once you realize that okay, Australia no longer welcomes international students, so I might as well apply for Canada, New Zealand or other study destinations, rather than losing my time applying to Australia.”
