International student intake cap to be discussed in urgent meeting

The university sector and international educators say they're fundamentally just looking for clarity at this stage following the weekend's announcement that the federal government is planning to introduce caps on international student numbers. But the sector is also set to voice its concerns. It's saying the government is risking overreach in the plans it's planning to implement, which were announced on Saturday, and would allow the government to introduce individual student cabs for universities and other educators right around the country in an attempt to curb the growing rate of. International students traveling to Australia and relieve pressure on the rental market. When you take a look at the numbers, there are significant and growing number of international students coming here. It did take a big dip during the pandemic, but last year we saw 787,000 international students. That's the first time since the pandemic. The numbers have gone right back up above pre pandemic levels. The government argues it's a necessary measure to ensure long term sustainability of the sector, but property analysts say that the international student market only makes up a tiny proportion of the total rental market. And universities and the international education sector say that they're completely reliant on international students for funding to fund research programs and to offset the domestic student fees tertiary institutions. They say that the governments plans will throw business plans for institutions into disarray. Here's some of what they had to say. Many families overseas are already planning to come here. They need clarity and we're worried that we're going to have policy overreach. We're too much too quick. It's going to really damage Australia's reputation as a welcoming, safe, world class study destination. Now the government has said it's keen to work with the universities as it implements these plans, so whether or not this meeting has any fruitful discussions remains to be seen, but it has just gotten underway in Canberra.