Melbourne, Dec 16 (IANS) In a significant move, the Australian Immigration Department has conceded the Australian universities’ demand to ease visa conditions for students from India and China.
The amended students visa conditions would, according to a report in Melbourne newspaper The Age, come into effect from April 2011.
Australian Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans made the announcement to review student visa policy Thursday.
The much-awaited review has come after the Australian international education sector had come under immense pressure from competition from other western countries like Canada, Britain, the US, etc.
The Australian federal authorities have reportedly agreed to relax assessment level for higher education students from two major source countries India and China.
It is speculated that the eased assessment level would mean that the student applying for a higher education course in an Australian university can provide a sponsorship undertaking from a ‘third party’.
As the average Indian and Chinese students applying for an Australian student visa are finding it almost impossible to meet the financial requirements as per the current assessment level of 4, it is proposed that student could pre-pay the boarding fee from April 2011. This would bring down the ‘living expenses’ component of the so-called ‘show-money’ down significantly.
The third proposal, according to The Age article, is to publish industry statistics every quarter so that the sector could keep track of the ’emerging student visa trends’.
(Paritosh Parasher can be contacted on paritoshparasher@yahoo.com)
