The Immigration Strategy, published in December last year, is already having a huge impact on the sector, with the number of students being refused visas increasing and education providers rushing to prepare as the new requirements come into force.
The number of student visa applications and approvals fell by more than a third in the 12 months to February, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The impact on providers is significant. Speakers at a recruitment webinar hosted by the International Education Association of Australia pointed out that low visa approval rates could be costing the sector.
There have also been reports that prospective university students have been told to withdraw their applications before the Home Office returns their visas due to concerns they will not be able to meet the new requirements.
Immigration expert Abul Rizvi said the government had never looked at international students through the lens of net migration before, and efforts to reduce numbers were a result of the very high levels seen since the pandemic.
“The student contribution to net migration in 2022/23 was still very high at 51.7% – a student contribution of 267,000 out of a record net migration of 518,000,” Rizvi told a seminar held at the University of Melbourne’s Research Centre. Higher education.
“We have never been at those levels and the government has now decided that in the long term net migration must be reduced to 235,000 per year.”
To reach that figure, the number of students contributing to annual net migration should not exceed 40,000, he said.
Student visa rejections have already increased due to subjective decisions by immigration officials based on existing genuine temporary entry tests, and these rejection rates will not change when key elements of the immigration strategy come into effect on March 23, Rizvi added.
The introduction of actual student testing to identify people suspected of coming to Australia for non-study work would “reject rejection rates, albeit slightly better criteria, but will be determined by different subjective criteria”, Rizvi said.
Education consultant Claire Fields said the changes would have a greater impact on vocational education providers than higher education providers.
The questions asked on the actual student exam include explaining how the course will help you with your future job prospects.
“Rapid changes are underway in the conditions for cross-border cooperation and international education.”
Applicants will now be asked to answer a series of questions about the benefits they expect to receive from their studies, details about their family and community ties and why they have chosen to study in Australia.
However, unlike Australian university degrees, Australian VET qualifications are not widely recognized globally, so applicants applying for visas for vocational courses may have difficulty proving these aspects through exams, Fields said.
“If real student testing were implemented as discussed in the immigration strategy, there would be a significant reduction in numbers in the VET sector,” she said.
The strategy also gives powers to stop education providers targeting international students in order to clean up so-called 'ghost colleges', where students receive little education and work in low-paid work. It is expected that the highest risk service providers will be promptly notified and given six months to remediate or close.
Simon Marginson, Professor of Higher Education at the University of Oxford, also spoke at the seminar and said that beyond the financial impact on education providers, the consequences of restrictions on overseas students have far-reaching implications for global co-operation, cultural exchange and economic growth.
He said Australia was not alone in its plan to reduce immigration by limiting student numbers, arguing the strategy was a response to the changing geopolitics of recent years and a move away from globalization.
“The fact that population declines are occurring now represents a common response to pressures to protect indigenous peoples and to oppose migration. Commercial service providers in Canada, the UK and Australia have all introduced visa regimes that have significantly reduced the flow of students into the country,” Marginson said.
The reasons given in Australia and Canada could have been invoked at any time in the past, Marginson argued, although housing shortages and the use of public facilities by students and dependents in the UK may have a material basis.
“Rapid changes are underway to the conditions for cross-border cooperation and international education,” he said.
“The fact that student visa numbers are now decreasing signals a renewed willingness to prioritize border security over international trade.”