In an unexpectedly generous move the Australian government decided to lift most restrictions on the issuing of student visas to overseas students applying for a place at university. The hope is to create a new flood of new applications from China, India and other Asian countries. Australia’s 39 universities are preparing for 2012 when the government lifts not only the quotas on the number of local students, but also the restrictions to recruit as many foreigners as they wish as a result of a new fast-track visa system.
Education is one of the most important industries in Australia – and a business that suffered in the last two years due to visa restrictions and the very high value of the Australian dollar. The government tightened the visa rules in 2009 in an attempt to reign in dodgy college operators using vocational education courses as a front for their clients to obtain permanent residency visas. Tens of thousands of students enrolled in questionable courses in the hope of staying on after completion. In 2009, the estimated economic benefit to Australia of having nearly 500,000 fee-paying foreign students enrolled in schools, colleges and universities was 18 billion Australian dollars - two years later under the new visa rule this number had fallen by two billion dollars. The universities protested against the loss of foreign students and the government appointed a former minister, Michael Knight, to review the situation.
His 150-page report with the title “Strategic Review of the Student Visa Program 2011” proposed a series of changes he claimed would boost the competitiveness of Australian universities in the global student marketplace. His reforms effectively give universities almost total freedom to recruit as many foreign students as they want. Among the changes expected to improve the attractiveness of Australian higher education is the scrapping of a rule requiring foreign students to prove they have enough money to allow them to live in the country for two years. A student from China at present must have access to at least 100,000 Australian dollars to obtain a visa. From mid-2012, however, students will only need to declare they can afford to pay tuition and living costs. After graduating with at least a university bachelor’s degree foreign students will be able to stay on and work for up to four years in Australia.
The Canadian-based international education consultancy, Higher Edge, takes a dim view of the Knight reforms. "Australia wants to go right back after that huge global pool of mediocre students where it has lost significant market share," the consultancy says in its Not-So-Foreign newsletter. "This is all about economic survival and they will do what Aussies have done for two decades - admit pretty much anyone who applies and pays."
Knight says he hopes his reforms will lead to more discerning recruitment. "Being confident they will be more competitive in the international market for quality students should make the universities less prone to grab marginal applicants," he says.
