The aim to increase numbers is included in the university’s Strategic Plan to 2030, which was released earlier this month and charts a pathway for the university as it struggles with financial troubles.
However, an academic has slammed the document as lacking detail and "neoliberal wishful thinking".
The plan sets a target of 24,000 students by 2030.
At present, there are 18,855 full-time-equivalent students (EFTS), which is down from 19,174 at the end of last year.
The university proposes to do this partly through increasing the number of international students.
"International students made up just 13.5% of our student cohort in 2019 and our growth in international students pre-Covid was much slower than at most other universities," it says.
"In the current funding environment, increasing international student enrolments is critical to our ability to invest in our education and research. We must work together to support international students’ growth and success as part of the university community."
The university had a cap whereby international students could not make up more than 15% of total student enrolment. That cap was lifted in 2021.
The strategy was released amid a turbulent time for the institution, which is seeking to save $61.5 million from its annual budget by 2025 and recently accepted more than 100 voluntary redundancies.
"Growth will require all parts of the university to contribute to attracting and retaining students, through focused and attractive programme and paper offerings, [and] more flexible delivery including blended and online learning," the strategy says.
The strategy also proposed streamlining programmes across the board.
"Nearly a quarter of our papers have less than 15 enrolments, and these papers typically cost more to deliver and support than they earn, which is financially unsustainable," it says.
"We will always need to deliver some papers and programmes with low enrolments for strategic reasons; however, decision-making for small papers and programmes must account for relative strategic benefits aligned to the university’s overall mission."
However, Associate Prof Brian Roper, of the university’s politics department, called the document "internally inconsistent" and said it lacked detail on how the university would achieve its aims.
"From a political scientist perspective, it’s actually fascinating in terms of its neoliberal wishful thinking.
"They’re going to go all out to get international students, which is a perilous model," he said.
The strategy ignored a lot of the concerns of staff, Assoc Prof Roper said.
"We have a senior leadership team that is not prepared to listen. It’s a highly problematic document," he said.
He was not against re-allocation of resources, but felt the "notion you can cut up to 25% of the university’s papers and not have any effect on the overall status of the university and enrolments, is frankly ridiculous".
He also was concerned about the fact there did not appear to be any financial plan or model outlining how the strategy to 2030 would be achieved.
In regards to finances, the strategy says: "Given that significant government funding increases are highly unlikely, we need to make a sustained effort to control our costs and to grow revenue from non-government sources".
Assoc Prof Roper said this statement was "appalling" because it suggested the university was "not willing to make its case to government".
