Australia: With ELICOS under pressure, peak bodies push for reduction in “extortionate” visa fees
- At AUD$2,000 (US$1,323), Australia has the world’s highest student visa application fee
- That unusually high fee, and a surge in visa rejection rates for aspiring English language students, have significantly impacted the ELICOS sector this year
- Job losses in the language training sector are being estimated at up to 5,000 and several well-established ELICOS providers have been forced to close
- Three key peak bodies have come together to urgently appeal to government for a reduction in the fee for ELICOS applicants and other short-term students
The latest data from the Department of Education reveals that enrolments in Australia's ELICOS sector (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) have declined by -38% year-to-date July 2025. For the same period, ELICOS commencements are down by -44%. This is, says a recent advisory from peak body English Australia, a trend that amounts to "the lowest year-to-date [commencements] since 2006 (excluding COVID)."
It is clear as well that ELICOS is the most severely impacted sector so far this year. Overall, international student commencements are down -16% in Australia YTD July 2025. Within that, higher education commencements are down relatively marginally (-2%), schools a bit more sharply (-10%), and VET providers more significantly again (-22%).
Many have attributed the downturn this year to the significant increases in Australia's student visa application fee introduced over the past 15 months. In July 2024, the fee was increased from AUD$710 to AUD$1,600. In July 2025, it jumped again to AUD$2,000.
That amounts to an overall increase of 182% in just over a year, and it gives Australia the distinction of having the world's most expensive visa fee, and by a considerable margin. For comparison, the fee to apply for a Canadian study permit is CDN$150 (AUD$172), and students need US$185 (AUD$299) to apply for an F-1 study visa in the United States.
Alongside those combined increases in the visa fee is a reported rise in rejection rates for offshore ELICOS applicants over the last three years. The Department of Home Affairs data for 2025 is not yet available but the data we can see indicates both that rejection rates are rising over time, but, perhaps more meaningfully, visa application volumes have declined sharply since 2022/23.
Ian Pratt is the managing director of Lexis English, an ELICOS provider with six locations throughout Australia. He explains: "Visa fees are disproportionately damaging to the ELICOS sector. An AUD$2,000 fee on top of an AUD$100,000 university course is a serious consideration, but one that students will often accept. For a shorter ELICOS programme, however, that same AUD$2,000 can represent up to a third of tuition costs."
"It is also important to remember that the increase in visa fees was coupled with a massive rise in the rejection of applicants. Many of these refusals simply do not make sense. Students might be willing to pay AUD$2,000 for a visa, but far fewer are willing to pay a non-refundable AUD$2,000 just to roll the dice at the Department of Home Affairs casino."
"The reduction in student visa numbers for Australia has been an immense source of frustration for ELICOS providers. This is an entirely manufactured crisis," he adds. "The two key factors driving the collapse in ELICOS enrolments are both government-made. The first is the absurd visa application fee. The second is MD-106 and the Genuine Student Test, which together have given immigration authorities an entirely subjective basis for rejecting visas. This discretion has been exercised with great enthusiasm. Every school has its own war stories of rejections that cannot be justified on any reasonable grounds."
The impact is real
The dramatic increase in the visa fee and rising rejection rates have combined for a significant impact this year. Speaking to the Australian Financial Review in September 2025, English Australia Chief Executive Officer Ian Aird estimated that the huge drop in ELICOS numbers YTD 2025 have already cost the sector between 3,000 and 5,000 jobs.
Some of those losses have been concentrated in a series of high-profile school closures, including IH Sydney, Perth International College of English (PICE), the Language Academy, the Lonsdale Institute, and, most recently, Astley English College.
"If the student fee is not reduced significantly and very soon, the English language teaching sector, especially private independent colleges, is likely to disappear in the next 12 – 24 months," says David Scott, the managing director at the Sydney-based English Language Company (ELC). "The introduction of the ‘extortionate, world’s worst, non-refundable visa charge of AUD$2000’, combined with the unprecedented increase in student visa rejections, has basically dealt a mortal blow to the English language sector in Australia. The once thriving sector is disappearing quickly as students turn their backs on Australia. Why would anyone pay AUD$2000 to study a short English course in a country that is likely to reject your visa and keep the fee? It makes no sense."
A renewed push for change
In a 24 September 2025 joint letter to the Prime Minister, Treasurer, Finance Minister, and several other cabinet ministers, the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA), English Australia and The Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA), argued for a dramatic reduction in the visa application fee for students coming to Australia for programmes of less than a year.
The letter opens:
"The undersigned peak bodies, representing a substantial number of education providers, students and academics, and international education stakeholders, write to request an urgent reduction to the current AUD$2,000 non-refundable student visa application charge (VAC) for student cohorts applying to study:
- independent ELICOS programs and stay in Australia for less than 52 weeks
- non-award courses and stay in Australia for less than 52 weeks
…We believe a 50% reduction for these cohorts is both fair and necessary."
The three sector bodies argue in the letter that the reduction is warranted because charging the full fee "for a course lasting months or weeks is inequitable," that the increases in the visa application fee have had a particularly severe impact on ELICOS providers, that a reduction in short-term study and exchange numbers limits outbound exchange opportunities for Australian students, and that such short-term enrolments do not factor in Australia's Net Overseas Migration (and, by extension, nor do they intrude on the government's goals to reduce those net migration numbers).
The joint letter closes on a note of urgency:
"While our sector has a clear preference for the Government reducing the [visa application fee] for these cohorts without offsetting measures, we recognise that current arrangements have been factored into the Budget outlook. We are therefore prepared to work with the Government to identify measures that will deliver a progressive solution without direct harm to the economy, to business and to Australia’s reputation.
Given the urgency of the situation, we request prompt resolution of these concerns as opposed to any Discussion Paper or ongoing consultation. The sector and our international partners are calling for action and we are seeking to partner with the Government in ensuring that is delivered without unnecessary delay."
Quick action needed
Speaking to The Koala News, Mr Honeywood also underscored that time is of the essence with the sector under such pressure this year:
“As each week goes by the sector hears of yet another English Language provider forced to close their doors. The time for polite conversation about reducing this extortionate world-worst visa charge is over. The Government has the means to reduce this charge and IEAA is pleased that English Australia and ITECA have joined with us to keep pressing for action.”
In a follow up comment to ICEF Monitor, Mr Honeywood adds that, "IEAA has been made aware that the Home Affairs Department is currently modelling some cost offsets that might be introduced to meet our request for the 50% visa fee reduction for the two requested student cohorts. There is also the prospect of the Department sending out a Discussion Paper for stakeholder input to ascertain sector support for any such cost offsets. But this will only serve to delay action being taken.”
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