Albanese weighs in on Adelaide student shortfall
Billions of dollars are being invested in reaching TikTok influencers overseas and to build Adelaide student towers. The PM today defends recent visa changes.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today defended recent national student visa changes that Adelaide University leaders fear will threaten vital overseas enrolments.
Asked about Adelaide University reporting a shortfall of thousands of international students Albanese said, “I haven’t seen those figures, but international students do come to Australia”.
“International students provide a benefit for Australia, but also a benefit for them. They also provide a connection with the rest of the world,” he said.
“We need to make sure as well that students coming here are coming here for educational purposes, which is why we need to make sure there’s integrity in the system, and that’s what we’re doing.”
His comments in Adelaide today come after Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced policy changes to reduce net overseas migration, including stopping some international students from bringing dependents to Australia.
The changes have created uncertainty among developers and the international education sector as billions of dollars are pumped into advertising SA as a study destination and poured into building accommodation towers throughout the CBD.
StudyAdelaide has spent $1.9 million to reach prospective students and influencers overseas between February 2025 and September 2026, according to publicly available government advertising data.
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The spend was split between two ‘global awareness campaigns’ targeting students and influencers through Google and TikTok valued at about $990,000 per campaign.
Asked if the spend would be increased or decreased in response to the recent visa changes, StudyAdelaide Chief Executive Jane Johnston said “we’re currently working with our members on what our next campaign will look like, ready to be in-market by the end of the year”.
“While we expect the recent changes to immigration policy will deter some students from choosing Australia, our state offers an outstanding education and lifestyle, and we continue to hear from students how welcoming our community is,” Johnston said.
“Attracting students to choose Adelaide from a competitive global market is a long-term strategy that starts many years in advance of a student making a decision.”
State Development Minister Chris Picton said today “with the increasing tightening of the Federal rules, the work of StudyAdelaide has never been more important”.
“The State Government is continuing its financial support of StudyAdelaide so they can continue to position our state as an attractive destination for international students,” Picton said.
“Our government will continue to advocate strongly for international education and skilled migration to South Australia because it’s important for the economic opportunities ahead of us.”
According to a government campaign evaluation of StudyAdelaide’s spend, “TikTok again performed extremely well to drive awareness of Adelaide and delivered over 251 million impressions”.
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StudyAdelaide’s TikTok account – which has about 34,000 followers at the time of writing – grew its followers in Vietnam, the Philippines and Sri Lanka during the campaign.
These markets are among those Adelaide University Deputy Vice Chancellor Jessica Gallagher told InDaily have been “harder hit” by Australian student visa refusals and price hikes, which contribute to the university having “a tougher go” at overseas enrolments.
“The current policy direction, we’re deeply worried by it because it is absolutely deterring talent from coming and supporting Australia’s productivity,” Gallagher said earlier this week.
Despite the Australian Bureau of Statistics recording lower student enrolments across the state, the Property Council’s national student accommodation director said there was still a nationwide shortage of student beds and a need for more accommodation to be built.
At least $1.25 billion has been pledged across four major student accommodation projects in the Adelaide CBD, while other accommodation towers under construction or with plans lodged for approval would significantly increase the total spend.
“The market of purpose-built student accommodation is still maturing so there is still actually a shortage of beds per student,” Student Accommodation Council Executive Director Adele Lausberg told InDaily.
“We often think about enrolments per bed…in SA, it is slightly above the national average”, she said, with the state’s demand at 7.5 students for each bed currently available.
“Because there is that shortage in SA, we’ve also heard that the planning system is very friendly so there are some positive signs for SA but the policy uncertainty from a federal level does obviously weigh on developers’ minds.”
Asked about the spend to promote SA overseas, Lausberg said she was unfamiliar with the specific StudyAdelaide campaigns, but that national bodies like StudyAustralia do not have large amounts of funding available.
“It would be good to see them supported because essentially international education is one of our biggest exports,” she said.
“It’s the only export that isn’t finite because we don’t dig it out of the ground.”
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