The visa charge for worldwide scholar visas making use of to review in Australia rocketed from AUS$710 to AUS$1,600 as of July 1.
With prices to review in Australia now amongst among the highest globally, leaders in worldwide training identified the transfer is prone to deter abroad college students from making use of to Australian universities in favour of different widespread examine locations.
Australia’s minister for house affairs Claire O’Neil stated the coverage would “assist restore integrity to our worldwide training system, and create a migration system which is fairer, smaller and higher capable of ship for Australia”.
However the Group of Eight blasted the choice as a “blatant revenue-raising transfer masked as deterring low high quality college students” and “one other nail within the coffin for worldwide training”.
“Australia now has among the many highest visa charges on this planet. The present charge of AUS$710 is already greater than double that of comparable nations (New Zealand AUS$344; Canada AUS$168; US AUS$283) and rising this non-refundable software charge to AUS$1,600 sends fully the flawed message to market,” it identified.
Its chief govt Vicki Thomson stated the measure would solely act as “a deterrent” to abroad college students. “The latest crackdown on visa approvals has already despatched a robust sign that we aren’t open for enterprise,” she stated.
It’s loss of life by a thousand cuts to our most profitable companies export sector
Vicki Thomson, Group of Eight
She added: “But once more our worldwide college students are getting used as money cows to prop up the financial system, the nationwide analysis effort and now to fund different authorities initiatives.
“It’s loss of life by a thousand cuts to our most profitable companies export sector.”
Professor at Deakin College Ly Tran took to LinkedIn to model the transfer “disheartening”.
“I might say this exhibits how worldwide college students are each handled as money cows and unwelcome. This damages and devalues, as a substitute of accelerating worth, Australian worldwide training,” she stated.
And IEAA CEO Phil Honeywood stated on X, previously referred to as Twitter, that he “can’t consider” the transfer.
“This may make Australia greater than double the price of different international locations. That is exploiting younger folks,” he wrote.
In April, a number of peak our bodies in Australia had urged the federal government to not heed the advice of the Grattan Institute to up the visa charges.
On the time, ITECA chief govt Troy Williams stated any such hike within the cost “can be according to the Australian authorities’s clear coverage intent to cut back the dimensions of the worldwide training sector”.
“[The measure] would penalise abroad college students eager to take up examine in Australia” and be a “job killer”, significantly within the vocational academic and coaching sector,” he added.
