Arya News - The government had exempted ASEAN students as part of its efforts to deepen Australia’s engagement with Southeast Asia.
SYDNEY – Australia has imposed a dramatic 25 per cent hike on international student visa fees, but exempted students from South-east Asia from the increase as it seeks to boost ties with its regional neighbours.
The federal government on July 3 raised the non-refundable fee for students applying for visas in Australia from A$2,000 (S$1,800) to A$2,500.
But, for the first time, students from ASEAN countries were excluded from the hike and were subject only to an inflation-adjusted increase of A$50, bringing the fee to A$2,050.
Australia’s international student visa fees are the highest in the world.
Fees in the United States and Britain, for instance, are US$535 (S$690) and £558 (S$959) respectively.
The fee hike comes as the government attempts to address a surge in migration since the Covid-19 pandemic. The fee increased from A$710 to A$1,600 in July 2024, and to A$2,000 in July 2025.
Australia’s assistant minister for international education, Julian Hill, told The Straits Times that the government had exempted ASEAN students as part of its efforts to deepen Australia’s engagement with South-east Asia.
Australia already had lower fees – just A$745 – for Pacific nations, including Timor-Leste, which became an ASEAN member in October 2025, as part of its diplomatic outreach.
“A reduced visa fee rate for students from ASEAN nations reflects the importance Australia places on welcoming high-quality students from South-east Asia,” Hill said.
“Australia and ASEAN nations share deep, abiding bonds, and it’s important that our young people spend time in their formative years getting to know each other and building lifelong bonds.”
Despite the increases, applications have remained high, and many students across the region say the fees will not prevent them from applying.
AUG Student Services, which has more than 30 years of experience counselling Malaysian students on studying in Australia, said the fee increase is unlikely to deter applicants.
Since 2022, Australia, currently home to about 15,000 Malaysian students, has been the top overseas study destination for Malaysians.
“The hike is just 2.5 per cent, or A$50, from the previous A$2,000,” AUG’s partnership director (Australia), Nicole Chong, told ST. “This shows the Australian government’s determination to maintain a strong educational relationship with ASEAN.”
Australia’s international education sector is the country’s fifth-largest export, bringing in A$55 billion in 2025.
The nation currently has about 681,000 foreign students at universities, vocational colleges, schools and other institutions, including 160,000 from China, 111,000 from India, 61,000 from Nepal and 31,000 from Vietnam. There are 6,165 students from Singapore.
Not a deal breaker
Yesasvi Koganti, a final-year undergraduate political science student in Chennai, said the hike in student visa fees is not a deal-breaker for her plans to study in Australia as her family can still afford the higher expenses involved in studying there.
“But I also know the kind of financial limitations that others who want to go abroad and study experience. So it is, to an extent, concerning,” the 19-year-old told ST.
Despite the higher visa fees, Australia remained an attractive option because the challenges foreign students face in other English-speaking nations such as the US and Britain are increasing, she said.
While rising costs and tougher visa rules under the second Donald Trump administration have made the US a less attractive option, Britain, too, has become less welcoming of late.
In 2025, Britain tightened its work regime for foreign students, reducing the post-study work period for graduates and others from two years to 18 months for those applying on or after Jan 1, 2027.
Australia, on the other hand, still allows foreign students to work between two and three years on a Temporary Graduate visa, though the visa application fee was also increased on July 3, from A$4,600 to A$5,750.
Said Koganti: “Comparatively, Australia still remains more open to foreign students when it comes to giving us economic opportunities.”
An Australian higher education expert, Andrew Norton from Monash University, said the main reason for the recent series of fee hikes was to address growing public concerns over migration, though the move was also designed to raise revenue.
He said previous fee increases have not significantly deterred students from applying, which may have prompted the government to impose a further hike.
“For those who are uncertain about whether they will get a visa or not, A$2,500 is a lot to pay for a student in a developing country, with no guarantee of a result,” he said.
In the year to June 30, 2025, Australia granted 371,564 student visas, including 233,570 for higher education, compared with 376,731 in the previous 12 months, including 227,230 for higher education.
For the same 12-month period, 2,888 Singaporeans applied for student visas, including 2,456 to attend universities, compared with 3,242 in the previous 12 months, of whom 2,717 applied to attend universities.
Australia ‘less prestigious’?
Though international applications have remained high, the number of Chinese students in Australia fell by 5.7 per cent in May 2026 compared with the same month a year earlier.
Louis Chen earned his bachelor’s degree in Beijing and is now planning to pursue a master’s degree in a media-related field. Despite receiving offers from the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, Chen chose to attend a university in Hong Kong instead.
“The cost of an Australian student visa had already gone up when I applied, but that wasn’t my main concern,” Chen said. “What mattered more to me was that, in China, studying in Australia is increasingly seen as less prestigious.”
Chen said degrees from Australian universities may offer fewer advantages when it comes to securing jobs with state-owned enterprises or leading private companies in China, making the higher cost of studying in Australia harder to justify.
On Xiaohongshu, a Chinese online networking and e-commerce platform, posts discussing the rise in visa fees have drawn a flood of comments, with many users grumbling about the higher costs. Yet, few appeared to view the increase as a deal-breaker.
One user, posting under the name “Serious Takoyaki”, summed up the sentiment bluntly: “It’s a buyer’s choice: if you really want to go, no price is too high; if you don’t, even a bargain won’t sell you.”
Weihong Liang, a Chinese student completing a PhD at the University of Sydney and the president of the International Students Representative Council of Australia, said the fee hikes will discourage prospective international students.
He criticised the exemption for ASEAN, saying all regions should be treated equally.
“The fee is quite high,” he said. “It may attract students who do not want to study, but want to come to Australia to work.”
Universities criticised the fee hikes, warning that they could reduce demand and take a toll on universities, whose revenues are heavily dependent on foreign student fees.
The hikes came in addition to an increase in visa refusals in recent years for students applying from South Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh amid concerns over the high rates of fraudulent applications from the region.
Phil Honeywood, the head of the International Education Association of Australia, an organisation that represents the international education sector, criticised the fee hikes, but praised the decision to exempt ASEAN members.
“This is not Australia being a welcoming country,” he said. “It is not good for our reputation in the region. The decision on South-east Asia will hopefully say that we are keen on students from South-east Asia.”
Additional reporting by Lu Wei Hoong in Kuala Lumpur, Debarshi Dasgupta in New Delhi and Ingrid Yu in Beijing.
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