At the end of 2023, the Australian Government announced a number of planned changes to the Australian migration system, including the plan to strengthen the integrity and quality of international education. What does that include?
Planned changes to Student visas (subclass 500) include:
The requirements for international education providers will be strengthened, including higher scrutiny to Student visa applications from high risk providers;
Introduction of ‘Genuine Student Test’ that will clearly incentivise applications from genuine students and discourage non-genuine students, whose primary intention is to work rather than study, from accessing Australia’s international education system;
Higher English language proficiency requirement will be introduced for Student visa applicants to improve the quality of students’ educational experience in Australia and reduce potential workplace exploitation;
Eligible course types will be reduced, with a focus on retaining tertiary university;
Course swapping on a Student visa will be not permitted;
Onshore visa hopping will be restricted.
Changes are also planned for Temporary Graduate visa programs, including:
Existing two (2) streams will be renamed;
Length of stay will be reduced;
Age eligibility will be reduced from 50 to 35 years;
English language proficiency requirement will be increased; the validity of the test results will be reduced from 3 years to 1;
Temporary Graduate visa holders will be restricted from moving back to Student visas while onshore.
The Australian Government is planning to implement the above changes by mid-2024.