Research Snapshot: New data reveals true scale of international students

the true scale of international students

Published: October 024

Author: Nico Louw

Menzies Research Centre analysis of new higher education student data published by the Department of Education in September 2024 reveals, for the first time, the true scale of international student numbers across different course levels and fields of education.

We found that international students comprise over half of all students in at least one course level across seven different fields of study, and more than three quarters of students in some postgraduate fields.

These figures demonstrate the need for caps on international students to be set as a proportion of student commencements each year at the course level.