Many Indians refused study visa

ONE in every two offshore Indians wanting to join their compatriots on an Australian university campus is rebuffed.

Just over 50 per cent of higher education visa applications out of India were successful in 2011-12, according to a new breakdown of official data.

This breakdown appears in the latest briefing note from the Australian Council for Educational Research.

The main theme of that note is the role of Indian students in the downturn affecting Australia's education export industry after 2007-08.

However, offshore grants of higher education visas ex-India grew 71 per cent to 3994 in 2011-12 although the absolute number remains well below the 2007-08 peak.

ACER says there were 7,716 offshore higher education applications from India in the last financial year, "suggesting a renewed demand".

The offer of two years' work rights after graduation with an Australian bachelor's degree is reported to be especially attractive in the Indian market.

Phil Honeywood, executive director of the International Education Association of Australia, said it had taken agents and would-be students in India some time to get to grips with the post-Knight changes to visa regulations.

But there were "positive signs" that Australian higher education was once again becoming attractive in the Indian market.

"However, the VET market is virtually non-existent as Indian students want the option of post-study work rights that only currently come with higher education enrolment," he said.

"As DIAC (the immigration department) have indicated a clear preference in recent years for students originating from southern India specifically, it would be interesting to drill down into this data and see what regions in India are now scoring the highest student visa grant rates."

The effect on the Indian higher education market of the new genuine temporary entrant test, applied since November last year, is not clear. The decline in grant rates, charted by ACER, began well before this test.

(Grant rates for the offshore Chinese market are much higher. In 2010-11, 97 per cent of offshore applications for higher education visas ex-China were successful.)

The ACER note shows a dramatic rise in the number of Indian students opting for higher education in Canada, where the migration incentives are stronger.

Whether or not the return of Indian students to Australia's universities is sustainable will be clearer when the immigration department releases visa statistics for the December quarter this year.

Source: The Australian

Australia willing to boost education ties with India

MELBOURNE: Australia will boost education and research collaboration with India to help it tide its demand for skilled workforce in the areas of faculty capacity building and curriculum renewal.

"Australia is committed to strengthening education and training ties with India. Opportunities for Australia in India are vast," Parliamentary Secretary for School Education Senator Jacinta Collins has told the inaugural Australia-India Institute (AII) conference here.

Collins, who was representing Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Senator Chris Evans, also reaffirmed the strength of Australia and India's bilateral education relationship.

"India aims to increase its formally skilled workforce through vocational education and training from the current 12 per cent to 25 per cent by 2017 - an additional 70 million people in the next five years.

"Australia is well placed to help India achieve this objective. Providers and companies are already developing low cost models of quality Australian training provision in India," she said.

"India is looking for assistance from its international partners in a number of areas including in faculty capacity building, curriculum renewal, and provision of quality education and training to enable India to meet skilling targets. Australia, as a valued partner, is well placed to assist," she said.

"Harmonising our education and training systems to increase student and staff mobility is also a key goal for both countries," she added.

Earlier, Evans had visited India with a delegation of Australian education and industry leaders for the annual Education Ministers Dialogue and to inaugurate the Australia India Education Council (AIEC).

The visit helped strengthen the bilateral relationship, with the governments discussing opportunities for education, training and research collaboration with India.

The two governments also announced a range of new exchange programs for academics and college principals, and a new website to foster closer education and training collaboration.

In Australia, the senator said the government continued to implement measures to strengthen the international education sector including tighter controls on providers, an International Students Strategy and expanding the role of the Commonwealth Ombudsman to deal with international student complaints against private providers.

"These measures support the government's recent reforms to enhance the integrity of the student visa program and refocus the skilled migration program to deliver the high value skills the Australian economy needs over the medium to long term," Collins said.

On September 22, Australia announced new visa rules to attract foreign students.

Source: The Times of India

Why overseas postgrads should be encouraged to stay

DURING this year's State of the Union address to the US Congress, US President Barack Obama highlighted the important contributions international education makes to his nation.

He posed the question: why do we train international students in our education system to advanced degree level, and then send them home to compete against us? We should encourage them to stay in the US, he argued, to run research labs and build new businesses.

His comments equally apply to Australia.

Australia's international education achievements are notable:

We know that international education has become a multi-billion dollar export earner for our nation.

But more importantly, the international education sector exports successful graduates who are better prepared for future careers as a result of their Australian educational experience.

Graduates we educate have developed valuable skills, learned about Australian values, made Australian friends and networks, and will forever hold our nation in their hearts and minds as a place in which they spent their formative intellectual years.

The impact and value of these outcomes are impossible to estimate.

International education fosters friendships and alliances. When business and political leaders around the world and particularly in our region have graduated from Australia’s universities, we are better placed to understand each other and build shared opportunities.

How do we ensure that international research students who graduate with PhDs in increasing numbers remain in Australia to contribute their expertise as academics or as contributors to industry innovation, or return home and maintain active research connections with their colleagues in Australia?

There is no doubt that the public diplomacy and goodwill outcomes of international education are of enormous benefit to our nation. In the global race for research output and knowledge creation the population of Australian-trained PhD graduates help us to compete against much larger nations, such as the USA.

It is these non-tangible benefits, in addition to the economic benefits, that Australia will lose to other countries unless the government takes fast action on the student visa program.

Latest figures released yesterday by the Department of Immigration again confirm the predicted dramatic plunge in international students. At first glance the statistics suggest that student visa grants have increased overall.

However, look closer and it is clear that there is a significant decline in offshore visa applications and that it is the onshore visa applications that are holding up the international student numbers. Australia has received the lowest number of offshore student visa applications for higher education programs since 2006 - from a height of 99,000 in 2007 to 60,000 in 2011. Total offshore visa applications were down by 20 per cent in 2010-2011, with offshore visa applications from higher education applicants down 17 per cent.

Fourteen of Australia’s 15 key international student markets have slumped significantly. India is down 63 per cent, China is down nearly 25 per cent.

Australia once boasted the world’s best student visa program it was fair, transparent and consistent. However, since the government toughened up student visa arrangements international students have been voting with their feet and applying elsewhere. The immigration figures demonstrate this.

Federal government strategies such as the high level delegation currently being headed up by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Chris Evans, in India are admirable signs of goodwill but they will provide no immediate relief. The new Australia-India Education Council is a most welcome development and it has the support of both governments and the universities, but it will not make our student visa program competitive with the rest of the world once more.

The strong Aussie dollar, which makes life here more expensive for foreign students, is also not going to change overnight.

The one barrier to changing the downward decline of the international student market that can be changed and that can have an immediate impact rests with Parliament. The Knight review into the student visa program is due to be released shortly. It is Australia’s only immediate hope of an end to the tightened visa requirements and a change in the tide of plunging international student numbers.

At the very least, we hope that the new visa program will provide certainty for visa applicants. We hope that it provides fast-track opportunities for genuine students bound for our universities: students who aspire to study in Australia to create a better future for themselves and their communities.

If we do not take action, we are at risk of falling behind as a knowledge economy and becoming culturally introverted. Instead, we call for a future that builds on the forward-thinking success of our historical leadership in international education, ensuring that we build a stronger economy and advance Australia’s world standing.

Source: The Australian