Fears that disillusioned foreign students, after being locked out for two years, would abandon Australia and look to the UK or other countries to study have not materialised.

The surge of approvals will be music to the ears of many businesses, particularly companies operating in the service sector who have struggled to fill vacancies.

Universities will also be breathing a huge sigh of relief with the return of an armada of students who generate a whopping $40 billion annually to the national economy.

However, there will be a downside for some.

“The influx will definitely help some of those workforce shortages, which a lot of businesses have been complaining about,” AMP Capital senior economist Diana Mousina told 9news.com.au.

She predicted the hospitality, tourism and administration sectors, who for many months saw their employee pool and customer base gutted, would feel an immediate improvement.

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“One of the reasons we’ve had such strong employment performance in the past two years is because we closed our borders.

“We had to fill those gaps using domestic workers, rather than relying on foreigners.”

“We could actually see housing construction not declining as much as expected next year.”

Overseas arrivals and departures data for August is tracking up but remains at around half of its pre-pandemic capacity.