Student visa applications on slide in Australia: Report

Australia has recorded a drop of almost 63 per cent in offshore international student visa applications from India in the last financial year, according to latest official data. The figures also show an overall drop of 20 per cent in the offshore international student visa applications, media reports said today. The Indian market has been the hardest hit by the fall in offshore applications with a drop of 63 per cent.

The June month Immigration Department’s quarterly report on the student visa programme revealed that the number of offshore applicants from India dropped from 18,514 in the 2009-10 financial year to just 6875 in the 2010-11 financial year. Apart from this even applications from China, Australia’s largest source country for international students, also dropped 24.3 per cent.

Melbourne University higher education expert Simon Marginson said the drop showed the sector was still a way off from a recovery. “[There is] no sign that we have yet reached the bottom of the curve,” he said. Marginson said the steep drop-off in offshore applications was largely because of federal government changes to the visa criteria and skilled migration list.

“Demand for Australian education in India always was relatively soft and the elimination of the migration-related industry run through education agents, plus the image problems triggered by the violence, has permanently depressed the prospects of recruitment in that country,” he said.

Professor Marginson said the drop in applications from Vietnam – down 31 per cent – and China was of greater concern. “China and south-east Asia are our core markets [and] far more worrying is the defection of part of the student market in China and Vietnam, where demand is more education-centred, and the quality of students coming to Australia has been higher than those coming from India,” he said.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), August 3, 2011

If Bill passed, foreign varsities can come next year, says Sibal

India’s Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said if the Foreign Education Providers Bill was passed in the current session of Parliament, such providers could set up campuses from the next academic session.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of Australia-India Education Council in the national capital, where around 15 vice-chancellors from Australia, led by Senator Chris Evans and Premier of South Australia Mike Ran, interacted with 14 vice-chancellors of India. The council, set up following a 2008 decision, will now make such an interaction between vice-chancellors an annual event.

The two sides, which discussed issues like credit transfer and student mobility, also tried to explore the area of vocational training. “We are looking at vocational collaboration,” Evans said. “We are very strong in vocational training.” The HRD Ministry is already considering adding vocational training as part of curriculum in schools, and a draft is being prepared in this regard. Pilot projects are already on in Haryana.

Among other issues discussed were security of Indian students in Australia, fake universities indulging in profiteering and visa fraud.

Source: The Indian Express, August 2, 2011

Rise in Indian students opting for Australia

After two years of tumbling fortunes, the tide seems to be turning in favour of Australian universities, as more and more Indian students are opting to study Down Under. The Australian Immigration Department has recorded a 21 per cent rise in student visa applications from India in the first six months this year. Over 3,700 Indian students have applied for Australian visa in 2011, The Age reported.

Education providers down under experienced troubled times after Indian students dumped Australia following a spate of assaults on South Asian students in Melbourne and Sydney. Aggressive coverage by Indian media pushed even bilateral relations, besides student enrolments, into a downward spiral. Matters turned worse for Australian universities and vocational colleges, as plummeting numbers coincided with the Australian government making immigration laws more stringent.

With Australia once again relaxing the visa regulations from April 1 this year and a significant drop in assaults on international students, more and more Indian students are anticipated to opt for Australia. “The number of student visa applications is rebounding, that category is up significantly,” the newspaper quoted Peter Speldewinde, Assistant Secretary in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, as saying. “People are generally positive about Australia,” said Speldewinde, adding: “The student issue has come up from time to time, but no one’s really pushed it very hard.”

The Australian government is reportedly advertising in Indian media to attract Indian professionals to settle in Australia. India is the third-largest provider of permanent skilled migrants to Australia. Over 15,000 Indians decided to make Australia their home last fiscal. Only China and Britain provide more skilled migrants to the Australian economy.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), July 5, 2011

Australia woos Indian students with scholarships

Ten scholars from India will be awarded 90,000 Australian dollars (about $94,400) each to pursue their PhDs from varsities in Australia’s Victoria state starting 2012, the Australian High Commission said Tuesday.

The new Victoria-India Doctoral Scholarships Programme, launched by the state government of Victoria and the Australia India Institute, is among the several strategic engagement opportunities initiated by the Victorian government to woo Indian students.

The nine universities in the state have agreed to provide a full tuition waiver to Indian students, and the scholarships will support living costs and education-related travel. The scheme was launched here by the Australian High Commissioner Peter Varghese and Amitabh Mattoo, Director of the Australia India Institute, Melbourne, along with Victoria’s Commissioner to India Geoffrey Conaghan.

“This generous scholarship is a great opportunity for some of India’s smartest researchers to pursue their doctoral studies at Victoria’s universities,” Varghese said. “The academic communities of India and Australia are working more closely together than ever before,” he added.

“The scholarships will contribute to global knowledge and help build a closer partnership between India and Australia,” said Louise Asher, Victoria’s minister for innovation, services, small business, tourism and major events. Asher said that Victoria attracts quality students from around the world because of its strong infrastructure and internationally-known researchers and teachers.

Speaking at the launch, Mattoo said: “This was a singularly important step by the Victorian government to build a real partnership with India.”

The universities are Deakin University, La Trobe University , Monash University, RMIT University, Swinburne University, Australian Catholic University, The University of Melbourne, University of Ballarat and Victoria University.

The move was seen to be aimed to woo back Indian students after the spate of racial attacks had dealt a blow to the number of students going to Australia.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), June 28, 2011

New Aus point system to weed out low quality overseas students

Australia is all set to announce its amended point system that would swap cookery and hair-dressing students with scientists, encouraging high skill professionals to settle down in the country. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen is scheduled to announce in Sydney tomorrow (November 11) the new points system that is aimed at toughening the rules of gaining permanent residency for overseas students with low quality qualifications, The Australian reported.

The new rules will encourage high skill workers and swap hair-dressing students with scientists. In China, Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans rejected any suggestion the Commonwealth should compensate education providers for lost income. “It’s not about us making up the shortfall. I mean, universities are a business,” he was quoted as saying. Some universities have gone into the international student market in a larger way than others.

“Amending its old system that allowed easy access to PR through enrolling into courses like hairdressing and hospitality, now graduates will have to fit within July’s new skilled occupation list, which gives prominence to high-skill jobs in health and engineering, and pass a strict new points test.

“The current weighting of points test factors leads to perverse outcomes such as the situation where a Harvard qualified environmental scientist with three years’ relevant work experience would fail the points test, while an overseas student who completes a 92-week course in a 60-point occupation (such as cookery or hairdressing) would, with one year’s experience, pass,” a discussion paper issued by Department of Immigration and Citizenship said. The test gave an advantage to low-skill occupations on the Migration Occupations in Demand List, which was axed in February by Senator Evans when he was immigration minister.

Monash University researcher Bob Birrell said a reformed points test would allow the government “to apply a more discriminating filter to select the best applicants”. This was possible because earlier decisions had slashed the number of points-tested places available while the number of former students seeking those places had risen sharply. The discussion paper said in these circumstances, “Australia can, and should, select the best and brightest migrants for independent migration”.

Senator Evans said universities understood the danger of becoming too reliant on one market. “I think most of them have managed that risk quite sensibly over the years,” he said adding “They know they’re vulnerable to such movements, as other industries are, and they’ll just have to manage that as they work through the issues.”

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), November 10, 2010

Awards to build up Australia-India science links

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on March 4, 2010 announced the winners of the inaugural Australia-India Science and Technology Research Awards (AISTRA) that will help research placements for researchers from both countries. “The theme for the inaugural awards, ‘Energy generation in a low-carbon future’, reflects the importance India and Australia place on meeting our growing energy requirements in a sustainable manner,” the Australian high commission said in a statement.

Akshat Tanksale from the University of Queensland will work with researchers at the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune on efforts to convert agricultural matter into carbon-neutral fuel additives. Ashish Garg of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, will travel to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) to collaborate with researchers working on solar cell technology. Both scientists are expected to undertake their overseas placement in the first half of 2010.

The AISTRA programme was established in 2009 to promote greater collaboration between research communities. With an Australian contribution of A$50 million (Rs. 200 crore) over the next five years, matched by India, the AISRF is Australia’s largest fund for bilateral collaboration with any country.

>Awards to build up Australia-India science links

>Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on March 4, 2010 announced the winners of the inaugural Australia-India Science and Technology Research Awards (AISTRA) that will help research placements for researchers from both countries. “The theme for the inaugural awards, ‘Energy generation in a low-carbon future’, reflects the importance India and Australia place on meeting our growing energy requirements in a sustainable manner,” the Australian high commission said in a statement.

Akshat Tanksale from the University of Queensland will work with researchers at the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune on efforts to convert agricultural matter into carbon-neutral fuel additives. Ashish Garg of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, will travel to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) to collaborate with researchers working on solar cell technology. Both scientists are expected to undertake their overseas placement in the first half of 2010.

The AISTRA programme was established in 2009 to promote greater collaboration between research communities. With an Australian contribution of A$50 million (Rs. 200 crore) over the next five years, matched by India, the AISRF is Australia’s largest fund for bilateral collaboration with any country.

Australian varsities fear slump in Indian student enrolments

In the wake of a series of attacks on Indian students, universities here are fearing that it could take years to restore the Australia’s reputation in India, with the families of Indian students instead preferring the US and UK, which they perceive to be safer destinations. Victorian universities are fearing major decline in the number of Indian students’ enrolments by 50 per cent for next year, the ‘The Age’ newspaper reported.

The drop has been due to the existing students who were planning to quit their courses here and over hundreds who were expected to shift to universities in other nations, the paper said. Of the 465,000 foreign students in Australia 90,000 have been from India. The report quoted La Trobe University’s international office acting director, Abizer Merchant, who said Indian student enrolments for next year were set to halve to 300 following a dramatic drop in enquiries and applications since the attacks in May and June. “What’s aggravated the situation is the Indian media making it sound like racism rather than opportunistic crimes,” Merchant said. “A lot of Indian parents are now willing to pay USD 10,000 or more extra to send their children to the UK or the US rather than Australia,” Merchant said, adding “Australia needs to rebuild its brand in India, but it’s going to take years.”

La Trobe has nearly 1200 Indian students on campus. However, he said a drop in Indian students would not affect the university’s finances because a surge in Chinese student enrolments was expected to cover the shortfall. Australian Catholic University’s John Cameron said Indian student applications for next year were down 45 per cent nationally and 31 per cent in Victoria. Other universities in Victoria also predicted declining trends including RMIT that reported a slight drop, Swinburne University also has predicted its Indian student population will also drop whereas Victoria University experienced a 25 per cent drop. Ballarat University’s Wayne Robinson said safety fears among Indian students and their parents had resulted in an 18.1 per cent drop in enrolments between this year’s first and second semesters. “Universities and the Federal Government have a lot of work to do to reassure not just India but every country that Australia is a wonderful place to come for university education,” he said.

Australian varsities fear slump in Indian student enrolments

In the wake of a series of attacks on Indian students, universities here are fearing that it could take years to restore the Australia’s reputation in India, with the families of Indian students instead preferring the US and UK, which they perceive to be safer destinations. Victorian universities are fearing major decline in the number of Indian students’ enrolments by 50 per cent for next year, the ‘The Age’ newspaper reported.

The drop has been due to the existing students who were planning to quit their courses here and over hundreds who were expected to shift to universities in other nations, the paper said. Of the 465,000 foreign students in Australia 90,000 have been from India. The report quoted La Trobe University’s international office acting director, Abizer Merchant, who said Indian student enrolments for next year were set to halve to 300 following a dramatic drop in enquiries and applications since the attacks in May and June. “What’s aggravated the situation is the Indian media making it sound like racism rather than opportunistic crimes,” Merchant said. “A lot of Indian parents are now willing to pay USD 10,000 or more extra to send their children to the UK or the US rather than Australia,” Merchant said, adding “Australia needs to rebuild its brand in India, but it’s going to take years.”

La Trobe has nearly 1200 Indian students on campus. However, he said a drop in Indian students would not affect the university’s finances because a surge in Chinese student enrolments was expected to cover the shortfall. Australian Catholic University’s John Cameron said Indian student applications for next year were down 45 per cent nationally and 31 per cent in Victoria. Other universities in Victoria also predicted declining trends including RMIT that reported a slight drop, Swinburne University also has predicted its Indian student population will also drop whereas Victoria University experienced a 25 per cent drop. Ballarat University’s Wayne Robinson said safety fears among Indian students and their parents had resulted in an 18.1 per cent drop in enrolments between this year’s first and second semesters. “Universities and the Federal Government have a lot of work to do to reassure not just India but every country that Australia is a wonderful place to come for university education,” he said.