The latest update from Universities Australia, delivered by CEO Luke Sheehy, is a crucial one. It covers the organisation’s advocacy efforts on visa issues, a topic of significant importance. Sheehy’s words are worth noting:
Issues relating to the government’s recent changes to visa processing settings remain a feature of my discussions with many of you and I want to reassure you all that UA is continuing to discuss our sector’s valid concerns with government at every opportunity. It was communicated to me in a meeting with Minister Clare O’Neil’s office on Monday that government has made small interim changes to internal resourcing to ensure the impacts of the recent processing changes are more balanced across the sector. We also understand government is considering a pause to evidence level updates and further changes to the processing direction and will further consult with the sector on these changes.
This is big and makes sense for two reasons:
- Since Ministerial Direction 107 was issued in December, there has been a significant lack of transparency and inconsistency around visa issuance. With this, it must be nigh on impossible to hold institutions to account in a system that is being artificially manipulated.
- The government has signalled a new Genuine student test (GST) to replace the genuine temporary entrant test. The Koala believes it would be difficult to hold institutions to account under one system that has been tossed out while operating under a new one. Perhaps a re-calibration of levels may be the way to go for the commencement of the GST era.
Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association, says, “It is already apparent that a dichotomy has resulted in the new emphasis on level one providers over all others when it comes to visa processing. In equal measure, there are real dangers in the proposal of freezing provider risk rating levels. On the one hand those providers who have made their best endeavours to improve their risk profile will not be rewarded with any proposed freeze. On the other hand, providers who are about to be assessed in a higher risk category will argue that they have been unfairly targeted.”
“In all of this, we clearly need a strong policy response that will make semester 2 a lot more equitable than the semester that has just commenced,” He said.
Ravi Lochan Singh, Managing Director of Global Reach also picks up on this point, saying, “The universities that asked students to withdraw at the visa stage may reconsider now as there is no risk to their risk levels.”
In any case, UA is smart to put it on the agenda as it’s a point the government will now need to address and rationalise in a way that can’t be covered with the standard line of “we are bringing down net migration”. It forces the discussion to move from the “what” to the “how”, and this conversation is long overdue.
Risk rating changes are expected to be communicated this month, so the clock is ticking.
