![\"Siena](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/05baf985963655d2c9a13cc624b85282b6b0f575bdc8142362187f6522920d52.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
September 19, 2026 \u2014 1:30pm<\/p>\n
Save<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Luis Guzman grew up with Australia in his sights.<\/p>\n After watching the film Kangaroo Jack as a six-year-old in Guatemala, he told his mother the country would one day be his home. At 18 he came down under to travel. At 28 he enrolled in a master\u2019s degree in event management at the UTS Business School.<\/p>\n Now in his final semester, Guzman has high hopes for the future. He dreams of working in Formula 1 racing, and meanwhile is developing his entrepreneurship skills.<\/p>\n He hopes to stay in Australia after graduating. The opportunities, he says, are unparalleled.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that in Australia, if I work hard and I put effort in, I can achieve more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Related Article Guzman is one of hundreds of thousands of international students who come to Australian universities to pursue their dreams.<\/p>\n Since 2021, international student enrolments at Australian universities increased by 46.2 per cent \u2013 from 314,619 to 460,090.<\/p>\n Those numbers have been a primary target of the federal government\u2019s plans, revealed on Thursday, to curb net migration<\/a> from about 300,000 to 225,000 next year. It aims to curb the number of international students by targeting visa hopping and by reducing the influx of family members.<\/p>\n The most popular broad field of study for international students enrolled in Australian universities was management and commerce, accounting for 120,136 enrolments in 2026. Information technology ranked second, followed by society and culture.<\/p>\n The most studied management and commerce disciplines were business and management (61,222 enrolments), followed by accounting (14,566 enrolments).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Speaking before the migration changes were unveiled, International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said those degrees had broad appeal to international neighbours, offering in-demand skills taught in a native English setting.<\/p>\n \u201cThe overwhelming number of overseas students doing such courses come from family businesses where the parents would like their child to learn business practices in a native English-speaking country, and \u2026 go home to run the family business or to start in a larger corporation.\u201d<\/p>\n Honeywood said on Thursday the reforms were \u201creally a mixed bag\u201d for international students but the changes were unlikely to impact the types of degrees that were most popular.<\/p>\n Related Article Guzman, who hopes to remain in Australia after his degree, says the variety of skills taught in business degrees made them desirable for domestic and international students.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople just want to gain \u2026 skills for management and skills for HR and skills for marketing,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have more options whenever you\u2019re looking for a job.\u201d<\/p>\n Guzman understood the need for the government to balance immigration with domestic matters but he was worried such reforms would affect perceptions of international students.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I talk with my friends who are international students, I think they are going to feel anxious about their futures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While management and commerce has maintained its position as the most-studied field by international students over the past five years, its contribution to enrolments dropped by 21.5 per cent.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Honeywood says this coincides with the removal of finance and accounting from the Australian government\u2019s skills-in-demand list. He warns that maintaining international access to these degrees is key to Australia\u2019s soft power diplomacy in the region, as many neighbouring countries have relied on Australia for its educational experts for decades.<\/p>\n There has also been an uptick in international enrolments in other fields.<\/p>\n In the past five years, enrolments in broad education degrees shot up 297.7 per cent \u2013 from 12,026 students in 2021 to 47,824 in 2026.<\/p>\n Teacher education increased from the ninth-most-popular \u2018narrow field of study\u2019 in 2021 to the second in 2026. This discipline encompasses early childhood, secondary education and teaching English as a second language.<\/p>\n The most-studied teaching degree in 2026 is early childhood, making up 36.9 per cent of international enrolments. The biggest increase for a specific teaching degree in the past five years was in vocational education and training, which increased from 159 students in 2021 to 4047 in 2026.<\/p>\n Honeywood says a portion of this increase is driven by education degrees being classified as a skill in demand by the Australian government, making postgraduate education diplomas a migration pathway.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cWe all live in hope that teaching vacancies and childcare and other skills supply shortages will be met,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a dichotomy between, on the one hand, skills in demand that Australia needs, and the motivation of some overseas students as to why they\u2019re actually enrolling in that course.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re heavily reliant as a nation on overseas students who\u2019ll be our future childcare workers and, indeed, our future aged care workers.\u201d<\/p>\n As international student enrolments fluctuate, Honeywood says there is \u201cno secret recipe for the right proportion\u201d of international to domestic students.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very powerful opportunity \u2026 to have this diversity of people and cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Luis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/235693e33589f0d52cbb73ac4faf515408e6feed.jpeg\")
Luis Guzman moved to Sydney from Guatemala to study. \u201cThe quality of life, the opportunities that I can have here \u2026 I think it\u2019s really nice.\u201dWolter Peeters<\/p>\n![\"Home](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/946eb5fbeecccc82c241cd531f516417651d7b7e.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Agriculture](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789849336_37_10c89a15820f32a2c019d9439b6166ca2fbba11b45c5785e925747ed18f8dfdb.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Phil](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/91e1a86b2557f3c4b2091638aa6acc8254117a70.jpeg\")
Phil Honeywood, chief executive of International Education Association Australia, at Melbourne University in 2020. <\/p>\n![\"Ali](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2ebec25df3906e36f2b0d54a5ebb0d447d0ef61c.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"Siena](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789849338_768_05baf985963655d2c9a13cc624b85282b6b0f575bdc8142362187f6522920d52.png\")