Vietnamese enrollees in Australia record significant decline amid visa policy change

Australia has recorded a second consecutive annual decline in new Vietnamese international students, marking the sharpest drop since the country reopened its borders after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Government data through September shows around 821,500 international students enrolled across Australia's education sectors.

Of these, more than 36,000 were from Vietnam, making the Southeast Asian nation the fourth-largest source of international students after China, India, and Nepal.

However, first-time arrivals from Vietnam to Australia for study purposes reached only 5,481 in the period, a 42-percent fall from a year earlier.

By contrast, the number of Vietnamese students who had already been studying in Australia and continued their programs edged up to more than 30,500.

The downward trend was not unique to Vietnam.

Australia's Department of Education said first-time international student arrivals fell about 16 percent nationwide in 2025, while the number of continuing students remained steady.

The pattern reflects immigration and visa policy changes introduced by the Australian government from 2024.

Vietnamese students also logged 43,441 course enrollments as of September, a figure that exceeds the number of actual students because each individual may register for multiple courses.

So the number of registrations is considerably higher than the number of individuals actually studying.

Analysts and several international media outlets say the decline is linked to Australia's recent policy changes.

From November 2025, the Home Affairs Department began applying a new visa-assessment mechanism under Directive 115, which assigns processing times based on each institution's compliance with international-student enrollment targets.

Financial evidence requirements, English-language thresholds, visa fees, and post-study visa durations have also been tightened as part of broader efforts to curb net migration and maintain quality in the international education sector.

Despite the fall in new Vietnamese arrivals, the study fields chosen by Vietnamese students in Australia have remained largely unchanged.

Business and management, along with information technology, continue to attract the largest share of Vietnamese students at the higher-education level.

In vocational education, Vietnamese students remain concentrated in service-related fields, including hospitality, culinary studies, management, and personal services, which are seen as compatible with part-time work opportunities.

As of September, the figures released by the Department of Education were considered a comprehensive indicator of the year's trend.