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Overseas student commencements fall 5% in Australian higher education
International student commencements at Australian higher education providers fell by almost 5% year-on-year in the first part of 2026, according to new preliminary government data.
by Kim Martin
October 15 2026
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The department said changes to policy settings and macroeconomic conditions affecting international students had influenced trends in both enrolments and commencements. Photo: iStock
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There were 123,968 overseas commencing students recorded as of May 1, down from 130,415 at the same point in 2025 – a decline of 4.9%, according to figures released by Australia’s Department of Education on October 15.
Overall overseas enrolments were broadly flat, falling slightly from 474,716 to 472,245, or 0.5%. This marks a break from strong growth in recent years, with overseas enrolments at the same point of the year having risen from 355,425 in 2023 to 423,803 in 2024 and 474,716 in 2025.
The department said changes to policy settings and macroeconomic conditions affecting international students had influenced trends in both enrolments and commencements.
The decline comes amid a tightening of Australia’s international education and migration settings, including a 2 9 5,000 National Planning Level (NPL) for new overseas student commencements in 2026 and a visa-processing system that prioritises applications according to providers’ progress against their indicative allocations.
The government has also introduced tougher student visa integrity measures in recent years, including stricter financial and English-language requirements, the Genuine Student test and substantially higher visa application charges .
The newly released statistics are preliminary year-to-date figures for semester one, rather than complete 2026 data. They cover enrolments with census dates between January 1 and May 1 and are based on a snapshot of live enrolments taken after peak first-semester census dates.
The department cautioned that the figures are subject to revision and should be used to identify high-level sector trends, rather than treated as final official statistics.
The data also includes overseas students studying at offshore campuses of Australian universities, meaning it is not directly comparable with international student figures based solely on students studying within Australia.
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Kim Martin
Kim is a journalist specialising in international education, with a keen focus on policy, immigration, and global student recruitment. Kim’s passion for cross-cultural exchange has driven her work, including a stint teaching English in Paris. Now based in London, she covers education systems and trends worldwide. When she’s not analysing education policies or student flows, Kim enjoys exploring London’s hidden gems and planning her next travel adventure.
View all articles by Kim
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