The number of international enrolments in Australia hit a record high of 839,200 in the year to June 2025. This was up around 13,400 (1.6%) from the 825,800 enrolments in 2024, around 130,440 (18%) higher than the same time in 2019 before the pandemic, and more than triple the 266,100 enrolments 20 years earlier in 2005.
Australia’s universities also have the second-highest concentration of international students in the world after Luxembourg:
China and India are Australia’s largest sources of international students, experiencing explosive growth in recent years.
Victoria is the go-to destination for Indian students, with 53,567 enrolled in the state as of June 2025, according to the Department of Education. Victoria also has a high share of Chinese students, with 50,577 enrolled in the state.
One year ago, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan visited India to promote stronger ties in education.
In a speech ahead of her trip, Allan grovelled for Indian students and attacked the federal government’s caps on international student numbers:
“We’re really proud really proud that Victoria is the top destination for Indian students”, Allan said.
“I don’t understand why there would be moves to jeopardise that. I don’t understand why there are measures to cap or block something that is working so well for us”.
“My message to you today, and it’ll be a message I’ll be taking with me to India next week, is that international students from India and from around the world are welcome here, absolutely welcome here in Victoria”.
“I also want to be clear that we won’t let this issue rest. We’ll keep pushing this issue forward but also keep on welcoming international students here into Victoria to continue to learn, study and grow”, she said.
Following her trip to China last week, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan promised to ignore the federal government’s caps and to bring thousands more Chinese students to Victoria:
Premier Jacinta Allan has vowed to bring thousands more Chinese students to Victoria, saying she will “not be deterred” by the Albanese government’s restrictions…
Pressed over whether she was lobbying the federal government to increase international student caps, Ms Allan said she had made it “very clear” to the Prime Minister that she wanted to bring more students to Victoria.
“I’ve had many conversations with the Prime Minister, and the federal government knows very clearly that the position of the Victorian government is that we say yes to international students,” she said.
“I’m not going to be deterred”… “I want us to build the best education system in the world, together. That’s my project here in China”.
As usual, the Victorian Premier has ignored the many downsides arising from the explosion in student numbers, including the collapse in pedagogical standards, the explosion in ‘ghost colleges’, endemic wage theft, the rental crisis, etc.
Even International Education Association of Australia CEO Phil Honeywood in 2023 labelled Australia’s international education system a “Ponzi scheme” for enticing non-genuine students through migration pathways.
We can look forward to more university tutorials being held in foreign languages, marginalising local students.
We can expect more mass cheating across our universities:
Academics working at Australia’s universities can also forget about failing poorly performing international students because it risks revenue:
The above statements by Jacinta Allan are proof that Victoria is a Ponzi economy built on immigration volume instead of quality.
Allan will do anything to force-feed Melbourne to 9 million people by the 2050s, damn the consequences on productivity and living standards.
