Players have welcomed the implementation of the Knight review’s recommendations but some fear it favours universities.
It was with some considerable relief to the international education industry that the federal government moved to relax some of the onerous conditions it had placed on foreign student visas after several issues flared up in the sector last year.
Industry players welcomed the government’s acceptance late last month of all 41 recommendations made by the Knight review into the international education market, one of Australia’s top four export earners, peaking around $18 billion in 2009.
However, the industry has not uniformly embraced the government’s change of position because it significantly favours the nation’s universities.
There are also concerns that changes in policy in Canberra have not yet been adopted or fully understood by Australian bureaucrats who work in the visa departments in some of the major markets from where educators recruit their customers.
The issue stems from attacks on Indian students in Melbourne last year, which not only proved a major embarrassment to the government, but also brought attention to visa rorts in the vocational sector of international education, prompting a crackdown across the industry.
But the moves, described by many in the industry as using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, affected genuine students across the board, prompting a dramatic fall in enrolments.
The impact on the industry, which came during a period of global uncertainty and rising costs for students seeking to come to Australia, was severe – as the statistics accompanying this story show.
Last year, after hearing calls of alarm from across the industry, including the respected Group of Eight research universities, the government instigated a review of the sector led by Michael Knight, the former NSW minister responsible for the Sydney Olympics.
Announcing it would accept all of the Knight review’s recommendations, the government was most generous with the university sector, claiming it had the resources to take more responsibility for the students that entered the country as its customers.
The government said it would introduce new streamlined visa-processing arrangements for a range of university courses for faster, easier visa access for prospective students in time for second semester next year.
The streamlined arrangements will apply to international students enrolled in courses at the level of bachelor degree or higher. These students, regardless of their country of origin, would be treated as though they are lower risk, similar to the current assessment level (AL) 1 requirements.
“Our consultations found that the financial requirements for student visas were too onerous, so we are reducing the financial requirements for some applicants, with students now needing around $36,000 less in the bank when applying for a visa,” Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said.
But there is some irony that the sector that has benefited most from the changes is the least reliant on this market.
University of Western Australia pro-vice chancellor (education) Jane Long welcomed the changes to the requirements, which had made Australia prohibitively expensive, in many cases unnecessarily.
Ms Long said her institution was not significantly affected by the problems because foreign students represented only one in five of UWA’s enrolments and areas like student exchanges filled the gaps left by direct overseas enrolment in the short term.
In addition, WA generally was recognised as a comparatively safe destination for foreign students, even compared to other Australian cities.
Ms Long said one significant and positive change was to allow those graduating from masters and doctoral-level courses to work for at least three years, which would be attractive to potential students and to businesses looking for skilled recruits.
However, outside the university sector there remains considerable cynicism the changes in response to the Knight review will not rub out all the rogue operators or completely restore the market for legitimate players in fields such as English language, which rely 100 per cent on foreign students.
One operator involved in the English language market said that throughout the most recent difficulties Brazil had remained a solid market – but even there recent decisions by immigration officials had started to make life difficult.
“You have Canberra making (positive) decisions but it will take some time to filter to the outposts of the empire,” he said.
The source said the actions of the federal government during the past year – with its wanton disregard for legitimate operators – was like an extended version of what has happened to the cattle industry.
“This is our livelihood,” he said.