The Albanese Authorities has introduced a Nationwide Planning Degree (NPL) of 295,000 worldwide scholar locations for 2026, marking a 25,000-place enhance from 2025. The choice, revealed on 4 August, goals to ship managed progress for the very important worldwide training sector, which helps over 250,000 jobs and contributes greater than $50 billion yearly to the Australian financial system.
All at present lively training suppliers will retain at the very least their 2025 allocation, with some capable of apply for added locations. Public universities, specifically, might search progress in 2026 if they’ll display progress on key authorities priorities, resembling increasing engagement with Southeast Asia and rising scholar lodging choices.
“That is about ensuring worldwide training grows in a means that helps college students, universities and the nationwide curiosity,” stated Schooling Minister Jason Clare. “The brand new planning degree provides the sector certainty to proceed delivering a high-quality academic expertise to worldwide college students, whereas addressing nationwide priorities.”
The 2026 NPL continues to be 8 per cent beneath the rapid post-COVID peak, reflecting the Authorities’s give attention to making certain sustainable, high-quality progress.
Minister for Residence Affairs Tony Burke emphasised the steadiness between growth and integrity: “We’re ensuring scholar visa processing helps real training outcomes and our strategic priorities – together with rising provision of scholar lodging.”
To assist regional and geopolitical objectives, college students from strategically essential cohorts resembling the Pacific, Timor-Leste, and Australian Authorities scholarship holders will proceed to obtain precedence visa processing.
Importantly, college students transitioning from Australian secondary faculties, TAFEs, or affiliated pathway suppliers to publicly funded universities will likely be exempt from the planning degree cap from 2026.
From 2027, topic to legislative approval, the Australian Tertiary Schooling Fee (ATEC) will oversee these managed progress preparations for increased training.
Assistant Minister for Worldwide Schooling Julian Hill underscored the nationwide significance of the sector: “It’s the most important export we don’t dig or drill out of the bottom… We would like college students to see Australia as a premium vacation spot the place they’ll entry high-quality training and a fantastic scholar expertise.”
Within the vocational training and coaching (VET) sector, the Authorities will proceed to make use of visa processing and integrity reforms to form supplier composition from 2027 onwards. Within the interim, VET suppliers can plan recruitment for 2026 with confidence, with no discount in present allocations and continued equitable entry to visa processing.
The Division of Schooling has printed an in depth factsheet with indicative allocations for increased training commencements in 2026, with a complete increased training element of 196,750 locations.
Last allocations for publicly funded universities will likely be introduced in October 2025, and the up to date Ministerial Course governing scholar visa processing for 2026 will quickly substitute the present Course 111.
