Education Minister Alan Tudge flags limits on students from China and India

Foreign students will be the next to arrive in Australia, but Education Minister Alan Tudge has raised concerns about students from two countries.

Chinese and Indian students could face quotas to study in Australia as the federal government prepares for “tens of thousands’’ of international students to flock back to universities next year.

The Victorian Government has applied to let students back in this year – despite subjecting its own residents to the world’s longest lockdown – in line with plans approved for NSW to fly in 500 students by Christmas.

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge said he hoped that “tens of thousands’’ of foreign students can return to study in Australia next year – and suggested they might soon be able to home quarantine “for a matter of days, not weeks, in the not too distant future’’.

But he flagged limits to the numbers of students from China and India – who make up nearly half of the 545,000 international students enrolled in Australian universities, schools and private colleges.

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

And he called on universities to enrol more international students in science and technology subjects, instead of business and commerce.

“My hope is that we can quickly get to unlimited numbers so that demand is the driver of numbers of incoming students, not the supply of available places,’’ he told the Australian International Education Conference on Friday.

“When we do start to get our international student numbers up again, however, we need to do things differently.’’

Mr Tudge said that “we ideally have a greater diversity of students coming into the country’’.

“We are highly concentrated in students from five countries, and particularly from China and India,’’ he said.

“In some universities one nationality makes up 80 per cent of their entire international student cohort.’’

Mr Tudge said a heavy reliance on foreign students from several countries created a financial risk for universities and taxpayers, and “diminishes the experience’’ on campus for Australian and international students.

Queen's College, part of The University of Melbourne, in Melbourne. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

He warned universities that the federal government was looking at ways to enrol students from more countries.

“Some universities have responded to this through limits on international students and limits on (the) proportion of students from any one country,’’ he said.

“We would obviously like to see universities themselves taking the lead on this, but we are also thinking deeply about policies to help facilitate this.’’

Mr Tudge said Australia needs more data scientists, health professionals and engineers, yet nearly half of all international students were enrolled in commerce subjects.

“We are looking at whether we can create greater incentives to encourage students to enrol in these skills shortage areas,’’ he said.

Mr Tudge said many international students become long-term residents, and are “an important source of labour while they are here’’.

He said students and skilled workers will be the “next cab off the rank’’ after Australia lets citizens and permanent residents travel overseas from November.

“We are putting in place the mechanisms to allow for the safe entry of larger numbers of arrivals,’’ he said.

“We will be introducing an International Covid-19 Vaccine Certificate this month.

“While at first this will be for outbound travel for Australians, it will be expanded to authenticate vaccination certificates issued by other countries.’’

Mr Tudge said Australia would recognise the Sinovac and Covishield vaccines for incoming travellers, as well as the four vaccines approved for use in Australia – Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

He said home-based quarantine could break the “hotel quarantine bottleneck’’.

“This could potentially be for a matter of days, not weeks, in the not too distant future,’’ he said.

Originally published as Education Minister Alan Tudge flags limits on students from China and India