It’s getting tougher to get a student visa to Australia. The Australian government has released statistics related to student visa applications and rejections and only 56% of student visa applications from India in 2022 were successful in procuring their visas. The figure is even worse for VET students with less than a quarter able to get their visas.
Most of the rejections were due to the bona fides of the students. Students have to demonstrate to Australian authorities that they are genuine temporary entrants and this is where most of the students rejected fell short.
The increasing number of dishonest agents in India coupled with an increasing number of students who neither have the aptitude to succeed academically abroad nor the means to be able to afford an education in the ‘West’ has also increased. Fraudulent documents and doubtful credentials have also increased recently.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill has called the immigration system ‘clunky’, ‘expensive’ and stated categorically that ‘it was just not working’. She went on to add that former Secretary of the Treasury Martin Parkinson would lead a complete review of the immigration system.