The federal government today announced international students will be barred from bringing their families to Australia as part of a broader immigration enforcement action.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke said there would be exemptions for students in PhD programs or who were nationals of countries in South-East Asia and the Pacific.
Industry figures argue the move jeopardises the nation's fourth-largest export market by making Australia a less attractive destination for study.
University leaders and students have expressed concern over the federal government's plan to bar most international students from bringing their families to Australia under migration changes unveiled today.
In an address at the National Press Club, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said international students would no longer be able to attach their families to their student visas as part of a broader bid to lower overseas net migration numbers.
But "special visa conditions" for citizens of Pacific and South-East Asian nations, and for certain courses like PhDs, would apply.
Those with family already in Australia would not be affected, Mr Burke said.
Mr Burke said the government would also clamp down on so-called "visa hopping" by forcing students who wanted to transfer between courses to apply for a new visa.
Perth migration agent Manpreet Mann, who himself came to Australia from India on a student visa at age 18, said he agreed with many of the measures announced by Mr Burke.
But Mr Mann said he worried about what the announcement regarding families would mean for universities' reputations abroad and "Australia as a brand".
"At the moment Australia is not very appealing," he said.
"We are fighting against somebody paying $2,500 to Australia to lodge a student visa and not bring their partner, whereas [they pay] 85 euros to go to Europe where they can bring their family members."
Higher education stakeholders said the migration changes would hurt their $55 billion export industry — Australia's fourth largest.
Regional Universities Network chair and University of New England vice-chancellor Chris Moran said economies in regional Australia would be hard hit.
Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy said on Monday that Australia "should be competing for the world's best students and the skills, investment and ideas they bring — not competing to see who can drive them away fastest".
Group of Eight Universities chief executive Vicki Thomson told SBS there was a "race to the bottom" among Australian political parties "to see who can decimate our international education sector quickest".
Professor Moran said previous tightening of the allocation and success rates of visas had already caused funding gaps for Australian universities.
"You're either going to shrink the Australian higher education sector and the quality of the experience of Australians or you're going to have to supplant those funds from other government funding. There's not really a third way," he said.
International Students Representative Council of Australia president Weighong Liang said changes to migration policy should consider "social cohesion and the real impact on the wellbeing of individual students and their families".
"International students are not simply numbers in a migration system. They study, live, build relationships and become part of communities across Australia," he said.
Azizah Raihan, who is studying a Bachelor of Biomedicine at the University of Melbourne, said the news was "pretty worrying".
"I myself am a very family-oriented person. I probably wouldn't have come here if I didn't have an uncle that already lives here," she said.
"If that's going to be a thing, it will probably affect those that are planning to come here."
Shilpi Jaiswal, an international student from Nepal studying in Sydney, said it was hard news for immigrants "who are doing everything" to better their future and their families back home.
"It's impacting a lot to us … I was planning to [have] my parents for three months to visit us … but after hearing those things, we are very scared to apply for the visa," she said.
Design student Sophia Stober, who is from Sierra Leone and Nigeria, said her sister had planned to join her in Melbourne as it was "difficult to find real family here".
"If they're not able to move, I feel disconnected from my people," she said.
"It's disheartening to hear that they're not going to be able to come."