The reason for the new policy is cited as to stamp out fraudulence and to ensure that the students have enough funds for their study in Australia.[break]
From July 2007-June 2008, around 11,000 students went to Australia for higher education. This number decreased slightly to 7,880 from July 2008- June 2009. However, from June 2009- December 2009, the number drastically fell to just 1000.
“After the new regulation embarked in February 2009, Australia now is no longer a popular destination for higher education,” says Prakash Pandey, Managing Director, Mates Education Private Limited, Putalisadak.
Salik Ram Bhandari, CEO, The Next Educational Consultancy, thinks the reason behind the new regulation was to filter students so that only academically and financially able students are able to go to Australia for their education.
The major change due to new regulation is that the number of banks whose financial documents were acceptable decreased from 12 to 2. The verification process has also become more complicated and the number of visas being rejected has increased. Nepal has the highest visa refusal rate of 38.8%.
Pandey believes that the decreasing number of acceptable banks shows the weakness of the Australian High Commission to distinguish the fake documents from genuine ones. “The Australian High Commission could not stop the continuation of fraudulence, hence to hide its weakness, they opted to limit the number of banks,” says Pandey.
Due to the stricter policy adopted by the Australian High Commission, the number of students applying and subsequently receiving visas has decreased dramatically. According to Pandey, the primary reason for the decrease is the limitation of accepted banks to two. “Since documents from only Nabil and SBI Bank are now the only ones accepted, and since students have to have the specified amount of money 3-6 months prior to applying for visa, many students are discouraged,” says Pandey.
M Kumar Shrestha, who applied for a Diploma course and then for a visa in electrical engineering, received his pre-visa, says that due to the limitation of banks, it has become very difficult to manage the process.
Families who have bank accounts in other banks, whose interest is generally higher than that of these two banks, do not want to bear the loss. And since, the required deposit in those two banks do not guarantee the students a visa, they are further de-motivated to transfer the sum.
If a student does not have the required sum, they can take an education loan. However, the banks are limited to the same two. The process of acquiring loans in these two banks is usually complicated and time consuming.
Another reason for the decrease in the number is the easier visa process and high success rate in the UK that was seen some time ago. Since the visa attaining process was made easier, more students applied for the UK. The UK and Australia deliver a similar quality of education, and thus students preferred the UK with higher visa rates than Australia.
Another reason is, Australian colleges are shutting down in large numbers. According to Pandey, the government of Australia is itself not sure about their educational policy and thus constantly change it discouraging many international students.
Nepali students usually think of working while studying. However, due to the global recession, the availability of jobs has decreased drastically. Hence students now prefer other countries like India that have lower fees so that the students can afford studying without depending on working.
Pandey feels that the number of banks that are acceptable must be increased.
Applying to Australia
Students, who plan to go to Australia, first have to give IELTS examination. The minimum score for applying for a visa is 5.0 out of 9.0. However, different levels of education and the course to be undertaken have different minimum scores which must be met.
The college search comes next. The students should know which course they want to study and search for colleges according to affordability, quality of education, location, courses available etc.
After receiving an offer letter and sending the deposit to the respective college, the student now can get involved in the visa attaining process.
The student should make sure that as per the rules, their account in Nabil or SBI has the amount required for their stay in Australia for a period of two years including room, board, travel expenses, tuition fees, and personal expenses 3-6 months prior to the date of application.
After verification and an interview, if conducted, the Australian High Commission issues a pre-visa, after which the probability of getting the visa is almost 99%. The student should then make sure that everything thereafter, which may be required, reaches on time.
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