CANBERRA – International students dreaming to study in Australia might find it difficult to fulfill their dreams due to another increase in the student visa fees.
Australia’s governing Labor Party announced on Monday that, if re-elected, it plans to raise the cost of international student visas to A$2,000.
The whopping fee hike is part of a broader strategy to regulate immigration levels and increase government income and comes amid tightening of immigration rules on a global scale.
According to a joint statement issued by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, the proposed increase is expected to bring in approximately A$760 million over the next four years.
‘We believe this is a practical step that reflects the high value placed on education in Australia,’ Gallagher said during a press briefing.
There has been a consistent increase in the student visa fee and in last July, the government had already more than doubled the visa fee, raising it from A$710 to A$1,600.
Interestingly, the visa fee increase seems to be written on the wall as the opposition coalition has also proposed a fee hike, suggesting a minimum visa fee of A$2,500 for students attending standard universities and A$5,000 for those applying to elite institutions under the Group of Eight; the Group of Eight (Go8) is a coalition of leading Australian universities known for their high academic standards and include University of Melbourne, Australian National University (ANU), University of Sydney, University of Queensland (UQ), University of New South Wales (UNSW), University of Western Australia (UWA), University of Adelaide, and Monash University.
International students are a key revenue stream for Australian universities and have contributed significantly to the country’s population growth through migration though the same has contributed to increase in demand for housing and consequently pushing up living costs.
According to official statistics, nearly 200,000 international students entered Australia in February 2025—a 12.1% rise from the same month last year and 7.3% more than pre-COVID levels.
As far as the enrollments are concerned, labor has pledged to cap the number of new international student enrollments at 270,000 for 2025, while the opposition has proposed a stricter limit of 240,000.
In 2024, Australia hosted over one million international students, with 572,000 beginning new academic programs despite the fact that the student visa fee in the country is significantly higher than in U.S. and Canada.
