Australian Immigration Daily News

Australia has long been one of the top-ranking countries in the world when it comes to the lucrative export dollar generated by the provision of an internationally recognised qualification. Whilst education providers have experienced a significant decline in overseas student numbers from 2009 to 2012, Australia still sits as one of the leaders when it comes to this type of export sector.  However, competition from neightbouring countries including the UK and Canada may once again see a decline in a number of students travelling to Australia to study.

Prior to and for some time after the completion of the Knight Review in 2011, when some significant changes were made to the program as a result of the recommendations of that review, Australia had been losing ground against its competitor nations like Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the UK.

The increasing costs of international tuition, the costs associated with applying for the visa itself, the relatively high value of the Australian dollar in comparison to many international currencies, and the fact that there is only a limited number of qualifying students who, on completion of their Australian qualifications, have the prospect of applying for permanent residency, means Australia’s educational industry has felt the pinch of these various factors. Having said that, enrolment numbers across all education sectors have, for the most part, been steadily increasing again.

Current data produced by Department of Education and Training (DET) shows export income from education services commenced its upwards climb again during 2017-18 reaching $34.0 billion.

International education activities currently sits as Australia’s 4th largest export overall and education related personal travel is the top “service export” at 28% of total services exported (ahead of personal travel and professional management services). A number of our universities are among the world’s top 50.

Current student visa framework (introduced in 2016) has nonetheless reduced the overall number of students coming to Australia due to restrictions placed around qualifying to obtain a subsequent visa to remain in Australia or to apply for permanent residency.

Under the new framework it is the combined risk factors associated with the proposed education provider and the country of citizenship of the applicant that determines the level of evidence required to support an application in terms of financial capacity and English language ability. It is important for advisers to understand that this framework operates through Policy and is not formally legislated. As such any “risk outcome” needs to be viewed as a guide to the level of documentation required to evidence a visa application

In practice this means that even students from what may be considered high risk countries, if studying at a low risk education provider, may have reduced evidentiary requirements, referred to as “streamlined evidentiary requirements”

To remain competitive, neighbouring countries including Canada, USA and UK are implementing strategies to attract international students.

Recently, Canada has increased its student intake to just over 500,000 per year. UK is considering a similar program to Australia’s 485 visa allowing students to remain and work in the UK post study.

Whilst the effect of implementation of the abovementioned measures is not yet fully felt by the Australian economy, should these as well as other measures be implemented, it is likely that our education export will experience decline in the near future.

For more information, visit: https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/04/australia-maintain-stranglehold-international-students/?fbclid=IwAR2SaQj-PutuAjWBCJf1ZGdqJ6V5E2sxCu7LQRrkjZkDHVGfTWt8WTOZaTI