Australia’s visa approval rate for students hits a record low

While Australia’s universities are reporting historically high applications from international students the visa approval rates for students are hitting a record low. (Photo: Linda XU via Unsplash)

Australia’s universities are reporting historically high applications from international students to study in 2024. However, the numbers of students coming into Australia is expected to drop due to visa approval rate for students hitting a record low.

For the past 15 years, the student visa application approval rate ran at well over 90 per cent, but last year it fell to 82 per cent, and for vocational education the rate dropped to a low of 70 per cent in the six months to December 2023, according to new government data.

The government is trying to reduce a dramatic increase in migrants since the country’s borders were opened in November 2021, post-Covid and is clamping down on entry by ‘non-genuine’ students.

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 A$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.

Over 510,000 migrants arrived on Australia’s shores in the 2022-23 period, out of which 270,000 were international students. Before the pandemic, in 2018 to 2019, that figure was 170,000.

There were in 768,000 students living in Australia in January to October 2023, according to government data. This represented a 29 per cent rise on the year before.