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Australia’s Student Visa

Programme

Michelle Pearce - Consul &

Principal Migration Officer DIBP

Australia

ANZA - ICEF Auckland 28 April 2015

Outline of Presentation

• The role of the student visa programme

• Recent trends

• Recent reforms and review

• Q & A

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Role of Australia’s Student visa programme

• Opportunity to study internationally recognised courses

• Strengthens economic, cultural, social and diplomatic interests for Australia – Asia Pacific region

• Supports international education sector –significant export industry

• Government committed to facilitating genuine international students

Student Visas – a snapshot

Statistics

Uncapped programme

1/10/2014402,363 Visa Holders (highest since 2010)

Bulk in Higher Education Sector (subclass 573) 179,266 and VET sector (subclass 572) 71,368

Top 5 Source

countriesChina, India, Vietnam, Nepal & South Korea

Source: DIBP Student Visa programme quarterly report 31/12/2014

Australia’s Student visa subclasses

Subclass Sector

570 ELICOS – English language

571 Schools

572 Vocational Education and Training

573 Higher Education

574 Postgraduate Research

575 Non-Award

576 AusAID/Defence

580 Student Guardian

Top source countries

Citizenship Country

Student Visa

grants 13-1431/12/13

Student visa

grants 14-1531/12/14

1.China 28 440 32 612

2.India 14 107 16 302

3.South Korea 5 964 6 095

4.Brazil 6 784 5 964

5.Thailand 5 161 5 728

6.Nepal 5 326 4 950

7.Vietnam 6 365 4 940

8.Indonesia 4 193 4 384

General Student Visa Criteria

Generally, there are six criteria for students visas:

1. Electronic Confirmation of Enrolment (eCOE)

2. Genuine temporary entrant

3. Sufficient funds for airfares, course fees and living costs

4. English language proficiency

5. Meet health & character requirements

6. Overseas Student Health Cover

If visa granted, student can work – 40hours/fn and must meet visa conditions.

• Government’s dual focus – facilitate genuine

international students and ensure integrity of

programme

• 2011 - Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) requirement &

Fraud Public Interest Criteria PIC 4020 (Knight review)

• 2012 - Streamlined Visa Processing (SVP)

arrangements - faster

• 2013 - Post-study work arrangements introduced &

Gov’t abolished mandatory cancellation for student

visas - fairer

• 2014 - Assessment Level framework simplified

Reforms to Australia’s student visa programme 2011-14

Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) requirement

• An important integrity measure.

• Assessment of the GTE requirement is based on a holistic consideration of all the applicant’s circumstances to determine whether, on balance, it is likely that the applicant is a genuine student and genuinely intends a temporary stay in Australia.

• Not designed to exclude students who develop appropriate skills to obtain further temporary visas or permanent residence through labour market programmes (eg s/c 485, SkillSelect etc)

• Has made other positive reforms, such as streamlined visa processing arrangements possible.

Streamlined Visa Processing

• What is streamlined visa processing (SVP)?

• SVP aims to assist genuine students and temporary entrants to be assessed for an Australian student visa as though they are a low immigration risk, irrespective of their country of citizenship.

• Visa applicants hold a COE for SVP and have reduced evidentiary requirements for Immigration. The education provider assesses criteria such as English language , academic capability and finances.

• Education provider responsibilities under SVP

Assessment Level Framework simplified

• From 22 March 2014, Assessment Level (AL)

Framework used for managing immigration risk

(based on nationality & student visa) reviewed.

Simplified from four to three levels AL1, AL2 and

AL3

• All AL4 reduced to AL3

• Benefits - Eg. Financial requirements for Fijian

student subclass 573 Bachelors degree reduced

from 24 to 12 months evidence of funds &

English level reduced from IELTS 6.0 to 5.5.

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After Study - The Temporary Graduate

(s/c 485) visa• The Temporary Graduate (Subclass 485) visa

provides eligible graduates from both the higher

education & the vocational education and training

(VET) sectors with a valuable opportunity to gain

work experience in the Australian labour market

to enhance their Australian qualification. Two streams:

• Post Study Work Stream or

• Graduate Work stream

• 22,867 temporary graduate visas granted in 13-14

More Information

• DIBP website www.immi.gov.au/students

Includes Australian student visa information:

• Streamlined Visa Processing Arrangements

• Assessment Level Framework

• Genuine temporary entrant

• Document checklists & form 1025i

• Lodging a visa – AVAC & Online

• Statistics