Safety net for Indian students if Australian institutions shut shop

Indian students affected by the foreshadowed closure of three colleges in Australia would be covered by a legislated safety net, Australia’s High Commissioner to India Peter Varghese said. If these education providers shut shop and do not meet their obligations to students, international students will be able to access the Australian government’s Tuition Protection Scheme (TPS). This scheme will seek to place affected students in an alternative course or refund any unspent pre-paid tuition fees to the students.

The move comes after Australia’s vocational education regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), decided to shut down two non-compliant vocational education and training colleges in Victoria and one in New South Wales.

“The Australian government has in place a comprehensive suite of protection mechanisms to safeguard the interests of overseas students under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (the ESOS Act),” said Varghese.

Depending on the outcome of any appeals, the decisions will take effect from October 30 and apply to all courses offered by the Ashmark Group and G Plus G Global Trading. Both colleges have campuses in Melbourne and Victoria. ASQA has also served a notice on the Ivy Group in New South Wales last month.

The decisions follow comprehensive compliance assessments, including multiple site visits by ASQA officials. The ASQA audits concluded that the colleges concerned were non-compliant with the standards that educational providers in Australia are required to meet in the delivery of training to domestic and international students.

“The decision to reject a training organisation’s registration is not one we take lightly, but the interests of students and the integrity of training standards across the VET sector have to be upheld,” said ASQA Chief Commissioner Chris Robinson. Further details of ASQA’s decision can be found on their website.

There are more than 400 Indian students enrolled at the Ashmark Group’s college, over 100 Indian students are enrolled at G Plus G Global and 30 Indian students enrolled at the Ivy Group. “The institutions have the right to have ASQA’s decision reviewed — which may delay or change the decision,” added Robinson.

Source: Business Standard, October 4, 2012

>Australia lowers international student visa assessment levels

>Australian government has lowered the visa assessment levels for International students from 38 countries, including India, under which they would now be required to provide less documentary evidence to support their claims for the grant of visa. International student visa assessment levels were lowered for 38 countries including India across one or more subclasses from April 2nd this year, according to official statement released recently.

In 2009-10, there were 270,499 student visas granted across the seven subclasses, with 382,710 student visa holders in the country as of 30 June 2010, of whom 80,450 were from India, 80, 010 were from China and 21,720 were from South Korea. The assessment levels are periodically reviewed and adjusted to reflect changing immigration risk outcomes. Following the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) review in 2010, the government has decided to implement changes to reduce some student visa assessment levels.

A student visa entitles international students to come to Australia on a temporary basis for a specified period to study at an Australian educational institution. “Prospective students and their families, agents and education providers should be aware that these changes will lower the minimum evidentiary requirements needed for the grant of a student visa for the selected countries and education sectors,” a DIAC spokesman said in the statement.

“However, the reductions to assessment levels do not change the likelihood of a former student in Australia obtaining permanent residence. While many international students apply for permanent residence when they complete their studies, this is an entirely separate process and there is no guarantee that, on the basis of having held a student visa, a person will meet the requirements to be granted permanent residence,” he said.

The skilled migration programme is designed to meet the needs of the Australian labour market and strengthen the economy. Requirements for permanent skilled migration will change from time to time and there is no particular course that guarantees a permanent visa.

“Students should not make educational choices solely on the basis of expecting to achieve a particular migration outcome, because the skilled migration programme will continue to change and adapt to Australia’s economic needs,” the spokesman said.

Applicants will be required to provide less documentary evidence to support their claims for the grant of a student visa. These may include evidence of English language proficiency, financial capacity and academic qualifications.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), April 6, 2011

Australia mulls easing student visa norms

Australia is considering relaxing its student visa norms after complaints that it does not process applications fast enough thereby causing international students, including from India and China, to go elsewhere, a media report said on Thursday. The federal government has bowed to pressure from the country’s tertiary institutions over international student visa criteria, The Age reported on its website. Critics say that the delay in processing student visas has hurt the international students market in the country.

Announcing a review of student visas Wednesday, Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans conceded that changes were necessary to prop up the ailing sector, worth A$ 4.5 billion to Victoria state each year. The most recent international student figures show a 1.4 per cent decline in enrolments since December last year — in stark comparison to the past eight years, in which the sector grew 11 per cent a year.

“The Australian international education sector has come under increasing pressure as a result of the rising value of the Australian dollar, the ongoing impact of the global financial crisis in some countries, and growing competition from the United States, New Zealand and Canada for international students,” Senator Evans said.

New measures to shore up student numbers include: Reducing assessment levels from April 2011, including the higher education visa assessment levels for applicants from China and India. Refining the rules to further enable pre-paid boarding fees to be counted towards cost-of-living requirements. Publishing statistics quarterly to allow the sector to track emerging student visa trends.

“Well over 20 percent of Monash University’s students on Australian campuses are international students, with China being the largest source country,” Monash vice-chancellor Ed Byrne said. “The downgrading in the assessment level will mean that not only are the financial requirements less onerous on Chinese families, but it signals that we have a good relationship with China in the delivery of higher education.”

Universities Australia Chairman Professor Peter Coaldrake welcomed the changes and said he hoped the review would “provide a fresh start to our approach to the international student market, which is now suffering after having made such tremendous gains in the past”.

Senator Evans said the review would consider ways to “better manage immigration risk” and recommend ways to improve partnerships between education providers and visa-processing arrangements. Headed by former NSW minister for the Sydney Olympics Michael Knight, the review is scheduled to report back to Senator Evans and Immigration Minister Chris Bowen by mid-2011.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), December 17, 2010

Australia revamps skilled migration test: Impact on overseas students

Australia has drastically changed its skilled migration test to favour potential migrants with higher skills, experience and better command over the English language, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said today. “These changes to the points test are an important next step in the series of reforms to the skilled migration programme announced by the government in February this year,” Chris Bowen said in a media release.

“The reforms set the foundations for a skilled migration programme that will be responsive to our economic needs and continue to serve Australia’s interests in the medium to long term,” he added.

The changes announced would affect overseas students in Australia with lower level of English, low-quality qualifications and lack of substantial Australian work experience. While there has been a significant drop in Indian students going to Australia for studies in the recent past, the Thursday changes could jeopardise permanent residence (PR) plans of hundreds of thousands of overseas students already studying in Australia. Immigration advice professionals are likely to welcome the changes as the revamped system would encourage highly qualified and experienced professionals to apply for the Australian migration.

Bowen said: “For too long we’ve had a situation that Harvard graduates, in say environmental science with extensive work experience, would not qualify for skilled migration to Australia whereas someone with a 60-point occupation with a small amount of work experience would.”

The new general Skills Migration Point Test, which would come into effect from July 1 next year, would also favour professionals aged between 25 and 32. The skilled migration test would work alongside the new Skilled Occupations List (SOL) which was announced earlier this year.

The necessity to change the ‘inadequate’ points test was under consideration for long as it was perceived as dominated by a small number of occupations like hairdressing and cookery.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), November 11, 2010