Last week, the media ran stories about at least three universities withdrawing Confirmations of Enrolment (CoE) issued to international students, particularly from India and Nepal.
The Koala News was the first to report that the University of Wollongong and subsequently La Trobe University had moved to withdraw previously issued CoEs. The Australian Financial Review subsequently reported that Edith Cowan University was taking the same steps.
Additional media stories have focussed on the fall in international student numbers in the latest migration statistics:
“Australia is on track for a steep fall in net migration after federal officials turned away thousands of overseas students who applied to start courses this month, bringing student visa grants down by 20 per cent in the biggest shift in two decades. The cut to the education program is the biggest single factor in driving the total migrant intake down to 375,000 this financial year and putting it on course for 250,000 the following year.”
The response from many in the sector has been loud criticism of the government and official decision-making on student visa applications. The criticism has been particularly strong on social media, with one figure likening the government’s policies to an “Australian-style caste system”.
Even before the Migration Strategy was announced late last year, it appeared that the Department of Home Affairs was moving ahead of the official announcement on changes to international student visas – with providers and agents reporting visa refusals for students who would otherwise previously have been granted them.
With the criteria for the new Genuine Student test yet to be officially released, there are questions to be asked as to how decisions are currently being taken by the Department of Home Affairs as they transition from the Genuine Temporary Entrant test and the changes introduced in the Migration Strategy – to the implementation of the new Genuine Student test.
But while the sector awaits the specific criteria to be used to assess whether a student is genuine or not – the proposed intention of the change is the right one.
Australia should only be issuing student visas if the course a student wants to study will materially contribute to their future career prospects and to their likely future earnings (over and above the significant cost of living in Australia and the cost of the degree or VET qualification).
For students from less well-off families it may well be that it makes more economic sense to start their university degree with an Australian university at a campus in India or Indonesia, and then complete their studies in Australia.
If properly implemented the Genuine Student test will be a much better tool to manage student visa applications, than the caps the Canadian government has introduced.
Australia should be focussed on the best interests of our students in all of the decisions we take in international education.
As former Department of Immigration Deputy Secretary, Abul Rizvi, pointed out “it should not have taken threats from the Govt (sic) for universities to only recruit genuine students”.
He went on to add “but many universities will soon again lapse into bad habits if the Regulations don’t force them to only recruit high performing students.”
Claire Field is an independent consultant and the 2023 IEAA Award winner for Excellent in Professional Commentary Related to International Education
