Australia is going to make it harder for foreign students to get visas starting this week. This is because there are too many people coming to live in Australia, which is making it hard to find places to rent.
The government looked at the numbers and saw that lots more people are moving to Australia. So, they decided to make the rules stricter for students and graduates who want to come here. If any schools are breaking the rules about getting international students, the government can now stop them from bringing in more students.
The Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neil, said these changes are to reduce the number of people coming to Australia and to fix problems with the current system. They’re introducing a new test to make sure students really want to study, not just work in Australia. They’ll also put limits on how long visitors can stay.
Last year, the government made some changes because of COVID-19. They stopped letting international students work unlimited hours, hoping to cut the number of people coming to Australia by half over two years.
Since borders opened up after COVID-19, lots more people have been coming to Australia, especially students from India, China, and the Philippines. This has made it harder to find places to live because more people need houses.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics looked at the numbers and found that in the year up to September 30, 2023, 548,800 more people came to Australia than left. That’s 60% more than the year before.
Minister O’Neil said that because of the changes, fewer international students got visas recently. They hope these changes will help balance how many people come to Australia and fix problems with finding houses and jobs here.
