By Introducing Simpler System, Australia Levels The Visa Playing Field

20 Jun 2015

The Australia’s govt has announced that a new student Visa framework would replace streamlined Visa processing as well as a current Assessment Level framework in a bid to level the playing field across the sectors and reduce the red tape.

This week, the Education Minister Christopher Pyne and Michaelia Cash, Assistant Minister for the immigration and Border protection has introduced the simplified Student visa framework, stating it will reduce the number of student visa subclasses from eight to two and would introduce a simplified immigration rise framework for all the international students.

Cash said, the SSVF would support the growth of international education sector by enhancing both competitiveness and integrity while extending the streamlined process to all the education sectors and  course types.

SVP has served a very good purpose, but now it is the time to implement broader, simpler and fairer framework.

The new model is all set to roll out in the Mid-2016 following the expiry of present SVP arrangements which only allowed the universities as well as a handful of private providers streamlined the visa processing.

The stakeholders’ industry-wide has welcomed the new system, especially the private and the VET providers, most of whom were excluded from the SVP list.

Assistant Minister of Education and Training, Senator Simon Birmingham said, that , this new model would achieve greater equity in the student visa arrangements and deliver benefits to a broader range of education institutions including the VET Providers.

The SSVF would support the growth of Australia’s international education sector by enhancing both integrity as well as competitiveness, while extending the streamlined process to almost all education sectors and course types, which includes those in the VET Sector.

The Australia’s international education exports also continue to boom, showing an increase of 11.2% increase in the onshore international students to April last year. The VET Sector also accounted for 22.5% of total enrolments in the initial three months of the year.

Birmingham commented, that our strong growth confirms the quality of Australia’s tertiary education and VET sectors and it reveals the recent policy changes by the Abott govt, which is helping to create Australia, a popular destination for the overseas students.

Phil Honeywood, the CEO of the international education Association of Australia, has said he welcomes any frameworks  which lead to reduction of complexity of the present system.

We find the SVP has been beneficial,  but it can be  unsustainable in the long run. It has resulted in the dichotomy between the both peoples ‘haves and have not “ providers and have high administration cost.

It would also be imperative as universities would not be penalized for operating in the new markets where immigration risks is less, especially given aspirations for the greater diversity outlined in the It will be imperative that universities are not penalized for operating in new markets where immigration risks are less well known.

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