Australian Immigration Changes Lead To Foreign Student Boom

One of the biggest news that hit many australia student visa applicants last year was that of the new policies being implemented by the Australian immigration authorities. Many feared that the new rules will shut down their hopes of moving into the country. One group that was in total panic was the thousands of foreign students enrolled in the country's schools.

Today, a year later, the anticipation created by the new policies seemed to be slowly dying down. Indeed, visa applicants are now slowly accepting and complying with the new rules, as immigration numbers are slowly returning to normal after last year's scare. And to top it off, contrary to what some experts feared, foreign enrollment in Australian colleges and universities didn't go down that much, but instead, is now actually on a boom.

In case you might have forgotten, it was in early 2009 that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) announced major changes that will be made to the Skilled Migration program. One of these changes was the revision of the Skilled Occupation list that contained the positions that are allowed to be granted a working visa. The revision of the list involved the removal of more than a hundred position that have been considered as either low level or low in demand.

As many of these low level positions are vocational courses where a lot of foreign students were enrolled in, their removal caused a great deal of concern. Many were actually forced to withdraw their enrollment, because of the uncertain future in the country. This, in turn had lead to the closure of several colleges due to low enrollment rates.

However, the Australian government quickly assured foreign students that their status in the country will not be severely affected. They also immediately released more than AU$ 5 billion to serve as a refund and compensation for students whose enrollments got canceled after their schools closed.

The government also encouraged these foreign students to shift into higher level courses, as these will offer them a better chance of being able to secure a visa. Though some opted to simply return back to their home country, many actually followed this advice and enrolled in other courses. This one has allowed the number of foreign students in the country to remain fairly stable.

And as the changes have finally been set, this has actually encouraged more incoming foreign students to get higher level students. This in turn, proved to be beneficial not only for the students, but also for the country, as Australia is now able to fill in the shortage of highly skilled professionals that it needs. This have also led many foreign students to reconsider their initial thoughts about the changes.