While there will be winners and losers from Australia’s long-anticipated tightening of international education policy settings, industry figures believe the impacts could have been worse – particularly in higher education, which may be a net beneficiary of the reforms.

In a  released on 11 December, the federal government has rescinded the extensions to post-study work rights it announced only 15 months ago while slashing the age limit for temporary graduate visa applicants from 50 to 35.

The government will also increase minimum English language requirements to the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of 6.0 for student visas – up from 5.5 at present – and 6.5 for temporary graduate visas. It will also intensify its scrutiny of student visa applications lodged onshore, particularly by people on graduate visas, in a bid to restrict “visa hopping” that fuels “permanent temporariness”.

Other measures include replacing the “genuine temporary entrant” requirement with a “genuine student test”. The aim is to discourage people “whose primary intention is to work rather than study”, while acknowledging that temporary and permanent migration options exist “for those who may be eligible”.

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But in a series of sweeteners, the government has also flagged clearer and faster migration pathways for graduates with attributes required in Australia’s workforce. It also plans support measures and further research to help foreign students “realise their potential” by getting “the right job” after graduation.

Visa processing times for graduates with Australian degrees will have a “21-day service standard”, compared with a median 44 days at present.

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Peter Hurley, director of Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute, said the reforms would reduce the overseas enrolment growth rate. Dr Hurley said the number of current and former international students in Australia was nudging 850,000 and “hurtling towards 1 million”, and the government wanted “a more manageable level”.

He said the reforms would mainly affect lower quality vocational education and training (VET) colleges rather than the higher education sector. The increased English language requirements would not make much difference to most universities, which already required IELTS 6.0 for admission, while the backflip on post-study work rights – granting bachelor’s graduates two years of work rights, rather than four – was in line with overseas trends. Similar changes were under consideration in the UK, Dr Hurley said. 

The Australian changes will limit post-study work rights to two years for foreigners with bachelor’s or taught master’s qualifications, and three years for those with higher research degrees. At present, work rights total four, five and six years respectively years for bachelor’s, master’s and PhD graduates.

However, foreigners who study in regional areas will still qualify for an extra year or two of work rights, under changes introduced in 2019. In another reform likely to benefit non-metropolitan institutions, people seeking visas to visit regional Australia will be granted “highest processing priority”.

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Representative groups have broadly welcomed the strategy, amid media commentary blaming international students for Australia’s housing crisis. While a cap on foreign enrolments has been proposed, the strategy includes no such measure and it makes no mention of the international student levy under consideration by the Australian Universities Accord.

The International Education Association of Australia said the government had been under “incredible pressure” to “clean up some bad policy settings” inherited from its predecessors. “The unfortunate reality is that the combination of uncapped work rights and the  encouraged far too many non-genuine students to choose Australia over other countries,” said chief executive Phil Honeywood.

“We saw some incredibly bad habits develop such as…crazy commissions being paid to poach students from quality providers into dodgy VET providers. Given some of those variables there was never going to be a package that international education stakeholders would be entirely comfortable with.”

Mr Honeywood said public universities and their English language colleges would “gain a market advantage” from the reforms. He said stand-alone English language colleges would be disadvantaged by the changes, along with some reputable private colleges whose risk ratings had been tarnished by losing “too many transferring students”.

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Australian National University policy analyst Andrew Norton said he was generally in favour of the reforms, which would reduce the number of temporary residents cycling through different types of short-term visas. “This is a better, fairer system for the students themselves and it gives better results for Australia overall,” he said.

Professor Norton said reforms to the points test used to select skilled migrants would prove crucial in determining foreign students’ chances of obtaining permanent residency. “The big thing we don’t know yet is exactly what the new points-tested visa system will look like, and whether…a significant number of international students will be able to tick the boxes.”

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He said that for overseas graduates with skilled jobs, the likelihood of gaining residency would probably improve. “My reading…is that if you’re relatively young and have a good career start, the prospects will be reasonably good.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com