Australia has been one of the sought after destinations when it comes to international students who would want to pursue their higher education. However, due to the recent attacks on Indians and other measures being implemented when it comes to the student visas, the number of foreign students seeking admission in the Australian universities has slowly diminished.
Being a developed nation with state of the art facilities, there are many international students who wish to live and study and probably work at a later stage in the nation. They in turn contribute to the Australian economy.
With the implementation of the new immigration laws to the Skilled Migrant Program by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), more restrictions have been put in place. This has led to limited number of opportunities for the foreign students.
The key reason behind this is the amends brought about in the Skilled Occupation List based on which an immigrant gets an opportunity to work in Australia. All the jobs where in the nation is experiencing a shortage of workforce are mentioned in this Skilled Occupation List. With the amends brought about in this, many jobs which are considered to be at a lower level have been removed. Instead, jobs at a higher level have been listed where in the nation is in shortage of skilled labor.
With the removal of the low level jobs, it has had quite an impact on the number of international students applying for higher education in the nation. This is because of the students from other nations tend to take up vocational courses. These courses permit the students to instantly file for a work visa as soon as they finish with their course.
But with the new changes in place, these students are not left with any option but to head back home. They had walked into the nation with dreams and opportunities facing them. But now, all their dreams have been shattered with their investment a complete waste.
On the other hand, there are many academicians who fear that the new laws instead of helping might turn out to have a negative impact. This is especially with reference to the education industry in Australia. The main reason behind this is that many colleges and other educational institutions are highly dependent on the funds that are brought by these foreign students who pay heavily to come and study in Australia. The sudden fall in the number of students applying for higher education would impact the overall operations in these institutions.
The above has been proved by the Austech Institute of Further Education which is a Hospitality College in Sydney. The institution is now laying itself as voluntary liquidation as the total number of students seeking admission dropped drastically. As of now, this college has almost 750 students. Off these, most of them are of foreign origin. This is just one of the many examples of such high profile institutions closing down thanks to the new laws for immigration.
The consolation that these students are getting now from Julia Gillard, the Australian Education Minister is an assurance that options would still be open for the current international students incase their colleges closed down. According to her, around AU$ 5 million as funds have been allotted for such students.
But this does not seem enough for such students especially those who would have come to study with the help of an educational loan. More needs to be done for them by the nation’s government.
