The strategy will leave Australia’s most established and richest universities such as the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney largely untouched,while other universities and private colleges with a track record of recruiting non-genuine students will be targeted.
“Higher risk providers will experience slower processing times as visa decision makers consider the integrity of a provider,as well as individual student applicants,” the strategy said.
A table of university risk ratings produced by a firm working in international education based on confidential Home Affairs data – seen by this masthead–placed Victoria’s Federation University as the riskiest university for students entering Australia to work rather than study.
Universities with the best record are ranked tier one. Federation University was the only institution rated at the worst level,tier three.
A Federation University spokeswoman said it had been “disproportionately impacted by a sharp increase in visa refusals from India by the Department of Home Affairs earlier this year,which has now been addressed”.
“We are confident that following ongoing consultation with the Department of Home Affairs that we will return to a tier two rating for 2024,” she said.
Private colleges with higher risk ratings will also have their student numbers cut by the strategy.
ITECA said in a statement that the new migration strategy was “highly problematic,based on broad and often inaccurate generalisations about quality[in private colleges],and data from a broken visa processing system”.
“The language in the migration strategy is reckless,” Williams said. He warned of a potential “massive overcorrection” that would hurt the entire international skills training sector.
Visa grant rates hadalready begun to fall in recent months amid controversy over visa rorting,students moving to lower-cost courses,ghost colleges that act as shopfronts for so-called students to access the jobs market,corrupt agents and the exploitation of students.
Among the measures to be put in place to reduce student numbers are a tougher English language test and a new “genuine student test” – although it is unclear how this will differ from the existing “genuine temporary entrant” statement that prospective students must complete now.
The strategy also stops international students who enrol at an Australian university from dropping out of that course after six months and switching to a cheaper vocational college.
And it winds back the post-study work rights available to tens of thousands of students,with temporary student visas available at present for stays of up to eight years.
Students who are working in Australia on a “temporary graduate visa” will also be blocked from staying in the country for years more by enrolling in a new course once their graduate visa ends.
Not everyone in the sector believes the new strategy will slash international student numbers.
Associate Professor Peter Hurley,a director of the Mitchell Institute policy research group within Victoria University,said it was unlikely the new migration strategy would drastically change things.
“There are 860,000 international students and their families now in the country,” he said. “The students I think the government is targeting in this migration strategy are those in private colleges,along with those who have finished their course[and who have post-study work rights].”
Hurley said the migration strategy would simply cut back the growth of student numbers,rather than actively reducing them.
Loading
“This is the story of international migration policy over the past two decades:we have a big boom,we change the settings so numbers fall a little,and then the increase starts again,” he said.
Hurley said that England and Canada were also reining in their growth in post-study work rights because “post-pandemic,student numbers just exploded in those countries as well”.
He said Australia’s growth in international students,though,had been remarkable since the emergency phase of the pandemic had ended. “In two years,we have added about 450,000 people to the population – about the same population as Canberra – as international students returned to Australia.”
Get the day’s breaking news,entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy.Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.