Uni of Melbourne pauses hiring, claims $85 million hit from international student caps

The University of Melbourne says it will impose a hiring freeze and look to slash other costs, claiming the federal government’s caps on international students will cost the prestigious institution $85 million in lost tuition fees next year.

The university will be limited to just 9300 new international enrolments in 2025, according to the government’s figures, which were published on Friday.

The University of Melbourne will be limited to 9300 new international students next year, but says it was banking on having more than 11,000.Credit: Penny Stephens

But the university says it was banking on having more than 11,000 new fee-paying overseas students next year.

On Monday, the university, which was advised about the cap level nearly two weeks ago, announced a “pause” on hiring for vacant jobs and a crackdown on non-essential spending, saying its planned overseas enrolments would be cut by 18 per cent next year.

“We need to start to tighten our belts in anticipation of the financial impact of the government’s policy,” acting vice chancellor Nicola Phillips told the institution’s 10,000 academic and professional staff in an email seen by this masthead.

“We will need to reduce discretionary spending wherever possible, including non-essential travel, entertainment and other related activities, and reduce or defer spending on external consultants, contractors and other expert services as much as we can.”

Phillips said the government had continued to fail to provide the university with vital information about the new policy, and that the “lack of information presents real challenges for our ability to understand and prepare for the full impact”.

But David Gonzalez, the university’s National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) president, said many of the organisation’s employees were already overworked and that management had rushed into the hiring freeze.

“We have serious concerns about what a hiring freeze could mean for workloads, which are already pushing staff to their limits,” Gonzalez said.

“The acting vice chancellor explicitly points to a lack of information, yet is rushing into a hiring freeze after zero consultation with staff – the very people who are going to feel the brunt of this decision.”

The union’s national president, Alison Barnes, said she and her colleagues would continue to lobby federal Education Minister Jason Clare to safeguard jobs in Australia’s university sector as the government pushed ahead with efforts to legislate the caps.

“The NTEU will tomorrow [Tuesday] deliver our petition – signed by more than 6000 people – to Jason Clare, calling on him to guarantee there will be no job losses because of international student caps,” Barnes said.

Clare’s office was contacted for comment.

Last week, ratings agency S&P Global said the University of Melbourne was in excellent financial shape to shrug off any effects of the federal government’s caps on international student numbers.

The agency confirmed its AA+ credit rating for the university, which increased its income to nearly $2.9 billion in 2023. It recorded an operating deficit of $71 million, as its wage bill climbed to $1.7 billion.

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