The $51 billion international education sector is bracing for a harsh new wave of student visa rejections after the Albanese government’s signature plan to rein in migration through controversial foreign enrolment caps was torpedoed by a Coalition-Greens deal to block the laws.

Universities and colleges were elated at the demise of the plan to cap foreign student enrolments to 270,000 next year, but furious over the chaos that has engulfed the sector since May when the caps were first flagged in the budget.