A Look At The Australian Foreign Student Market

When you talk about Australia, student visa holders would certainly be quite excited. After all, the land down under has long been considered as one of the best places to study in for a lot of foreign students and with the ton of opportunities available in the country, a lot more will likely be attracted.

But this lively picture is back then. Nowadays, it seems that it is looking bleak for the foreign student market in Australia. According to the latest figures, it seems that foreign student enrollment is slowly decreasing in the country' educational institutions. In fact, the figures went down by more than three percent in the past few months. And some observers believe that it is likely to go down even further in the coming months.

One of the biggest reasons that observers pointed out as causing the decline in foreign student numbers in the country is the recent tightening of the student immigration program. It can be recalled that the Australian government, through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, has begun to tighten up the program since last year. One of the biggest changes that were implemented here was the reorganization of the jobs list that are qualified for a visa. The move saw the removal of many vocational courses from the listings.

Since a lot of foreign students are taking these vocational courses, many of them were forced to cancel their enrollment upon learning that these are no longer on the list. Looking further back, one can see why a lot of students are taking such courses in the country. Previously, these allow easy entry into the country for residency purposes. However, this is also the thing that the Australian government is trying to solve, as they argued that the setup is not doing good for the country's attempt at attracting the right kind of people to meet its needs.

But it is only not this one seen as a major reason in the decline of Australia as a favorite student destination. Other countries are now starting to showcase what they have to offer to many foreign students. And this is slowly catching the attention of a large portion of the international student market. For instance, the United States, while traditionally been considered as the top foreign student destination, have since increased its efforts to get more foreign students.

In this regard, a lot of experts are now urging the Australian government to double their efforts if they would still want to get a significant portion of foreign students. Luckily, they are not the ones to take this lying down, as the Australian government have said that they are now on the process of putting out newer programs to attract foreign students.