Australian universities urging international students to withdraw their offer

Wollongong and La Trobe universities in Australia.

• Two Australian universities ask international students to withdraw their offer
• Australia rejected 21% of the visa applications from international students in the second half of last year; 39% applications from Indian students were rejected

The most affected are students from India and Bangladesh - Wollongong and La Trobe universities have cancelled certificates of enrolment previously granted to international students, as the issuance of study visas in the country has reached record lows, especially for Indian and Bangladeshi students. An email published in the Koala International Education News shows Wollongong University informing a student that they were ‘unlikely to meet the new criteria to obtain a positive visa outcome’, offering them two options: either withdraw their offer and receive a refund or defer their offer.

During the second half of 2023, the Australian government rejected 21 per cent of the visa applications from international students, with refusal rates reaching 37 per cent for applications from Pakistan, 39 per cent from India, and 52 per cent from Nepal.

According to the Australian Department of Education, India is the second source country for international students, with 158,724 enrolments being recorded between January and October of 2023.

A raft of new regulations in relation to student visas was introduced by the government late last year. They include the capping of the hours a student can work to 48 hours a fortnight and increasing the amount of savings to AU$24,000 a student needs to show before getting a visa.

In addition, students are no longer allowed to switch their enrolment from a high-cost to a low-cost college within the first six months of arriving in Australia. According to industry watchers, this was a common route used by agents to allow students to bypass Australian immigration laws to work in Australia.