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education providers, and 95,000 for vocational education and training, the government said. The new limit aims to replace a recent policy of giving priority to students deemed to be at low risk of visa non-compliance — a system that has favored top-ranked universities while drastically slowing visas for other institutions.

Clare said the government would inform universities on their specific enrolment caps. The University of Melbourne said in a statement that it had received its indicative cap, without elaborating, and was assessing the financial and other implications. “The cap on international students will have detrimental consequences for our University, the higher education sector generally, and the nation for years to come,” said its Vice-Chancellor Professor Duncan Maskell.

The University of Sydney also said it was studying the likely impact of the cap. “We’ll continue to work collaboratively with governments and the sector on managed growth of international higher education, one of Australia’s most valuable exports,” it said in a statement. Universities Australia, the peak body for universities, said the government move would “apply a handbrake” to the sector.

“We acknowledge the government’s right to control migration numbers but this should not be done at the expense of any one sector, particularly one as economically important as education,” said Universities Australia chair David Lloyd. International students were Australia’s second largest industry after mining, accounting for more than half of the growth in Australia’s economy last year, Lloyd said. “Every dollar from overseas students is reinvested back into Australia’s universities. Having fewer students here will only widen the funding gap at a time universities need greater support.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said this month the industry was “absolutely vital” for Australia. But he said universities should not be overly reliant on overseas students, in part because of the implications for migration. About 69 percent of Australian respondents blamed immigration for high house prices, said an Essential poll for The Guardian published on Tuesday. About the same share of people – 42 percent on each side — described immigration as “generally positive” or “generally negative”, it said.

Net migration to Australia surged 26.3 percent in calendar 2023 to 547,300, official figures show, with 751,500 people immigrating while 204,200 left. Australia’s government also plans to protect the international education industry from “crooks who try to exploit it”, the education minister said. More than 150 “ghost colleges” had recently been shut down, Clare said, describing them as “a back door” to let people work in Australia rather than get an education. — Agencies