The Federal Circuit Court has ruled,in a decision that has importance for RMAs beyond the specific facts of the case, that the MRT erroneously affirmed the Department’s cancellation of a student visa. See Mirdan v Minister for Immigration & Anor, (2015) FCCA (24 April 2015).

The MRT’s decision was based, in part, on its finding that the visa holder was not a “genuine student” because he had not studied in Australia after the time that his student visa was cancelled, during a time period when he held only a bridging visa that contained a “no study condition”. 

The Court’s decision in this case therefore saved the visa holder from a “no-win”, Catch-22” situation where it would have been possible to avoid an adverse finding by the MRT only by contravening the conditions of his bridging visa.

The following email has been received by Migration Alliance:

'Please find attached a letter from Senator the Hon Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services, and the Hon. Philip Ruddock MP, Special Envoy for Citizenship and Community Engagement.

citizenship-consult.pdf

Dear Members of Migration Alliance,

An AGM has been called for 17 July 2015 at 2pm.

In the intervening period Elections will be held for the positions of:

Dear Migration Alliance members,

Hope you are well. 

Official Invitation to support the Council of International Students Australia (CISA) National Conference 2015

Private education providers are set to face tougher regulations as the Department of Education sets out reviewing the legislative framework around foreign student compliance, according to a report in The Australian.

The review is linked to investigations by the Overseas Students Ombudsman which has warned private education providers of a systemic problem of non-compliance that is severely damaging the reputation of Australia’s education sector.

Sloppy student services and false attendance reporting are systemic problems plaguing overseas students at private education providers, the national Overseas Students Ombudsman has revealed.

In an ‘issues paper’ on poor compliance in the private education sector, the Ombudsman revealed that it investigated some 448 student complaints since the body's establishment in 2011. The Ombudsman had to intervene in 142 cases in order to prevent DIBP from sending students home. 

“It warned some providers were failing to intervene with at-risk students, allowing weak students to continue to study and fail.Student absences were also being miscalculated. Providers were marking students absent when they were merely late, or on days when it was a public holiday and there were no classes scheduled” noted the report in The Australian.

Students suffer the consequences of these inefficiencies as DIBP normally reacts by cancelling their visas if the issues it becomes aware of are not addressed properly.