Australian National University to stop student enrolment growth to ensure quality of education

CANBERRA (XINHUA) - One of Australia's top universities has declared that it will stop increasing the number of students it admits each year.

Professor Brian Schmidt, vice-chancellor of Australian National University (ANU), announced the change in policy on Tuesday (July 24), saying that if allowed to continue, the enrolment growth would impact the quality of education being offered by the university.

The growth of the university's student body has largely been driven by the number of international students admitted in recent years.

The number of international student commencements at ANU grew from 5,590 to 7,425 between 2013 and 2016, while the number of domestic students being admitted each year rose by only 813 in the same period.

"If we get any bigger, we will not be better," Prof Schmidt told reporters. "The university is at a size of roughly 20,000 full-time students and so we're not intending to grow, both international or domestic."

According to the QS World University rankings for 2018, ANU is the top university in Australia and among the top 20 in the world.

ANU is not the only Australian university to admit an influx of international students in recent years. The number of international student commencements at all Australian universities has grown from 187,000 in 2013 to 319,000 in 2018.

Mr Brendan O'Connor, an employment spokesman for the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), on Sunday called for a national cap on international students to be introduced.

"What's happened is we've seen a 200,000 increase in applications since the election of this government federally," he told Sky News on Sunday.

"And, therefore, I think we need to see whether we could either cap the scheme or make sure it's being used properly for the purpose it was intended."