Hello and welcome to the details of Australia’s ruling party to hike student visa fees again in pre-election pledge and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Labor has promised to cap international student commencements at 270,000 in 2025, while the opposition favours a lower figure of 240,000. — Reuters pic
SYDNEY, April 28 — Australia’s ruling Labor Party said today it would raise visa fees for international students to A$2,000 (RM5,577) if re-elected, the latest measure aimed at the lucrative education sector that has been a major source of immigration.
The visa fee hike, from A$1,600 currently, will bring in A$760 million over the next four years, Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers and finance minister Katy Gallagher said in a statement on Labor’s policy costings for Saturday’s federal election.
“We think that’s a sensible measure that really prizes, I think, the value of studying here in Australia,” Gallagher told a news conference.
The government more than doubled the fee for international student visas in July last year to A$1,600 from A$710.
Australia’s conservative opposition has already pledged to raise the visa fee to a minimum of A$2,500, and A$5,000 for applicants to the country’s top universities, known as the Group of Eight.
International students are a major source of revenue for Australian universities, but are also in part responsible for a rise in net migration that has driven up housing costs.
Almost 200,000 international students arrived in Australia in February 2025, government statistics show, an increase of 12.1 per cent over the previous year and 7.3 per cent higher than pre-Covid levels in February 2019.
Labor has promised to cap international student commencements at 270,000 in 2025, while the opposition favours a lower figure of 240,000.
There were more than a million international students enrolled in Australia in 2024, while 572,000 students commenced their studies.
Visa fees for students in Australia are already significantly higher than similar countries such as the U.S. and Canada, where they cost about $185 and C$150 ($108) respectively.
The government last year also tightened English language requirements for student and graduate visas, as well as introducing powers to suspend education providers from recruiting international students if they repeatedly break rules. — Reuters
These were the details of the news Australia’s ruling party to hike student visa fees again in pre-election pledge for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
