Breaking the link

I have previously blogged about the difference between the "immigration outcome" and the "education outcome" as one of the factors which contributed to the problems being encountered by overseas students. It appears that the government was listening (or they had the same idea).

In a speech to parliament earlier this week in support of changes to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act ("ESOS Act"), labour MP, Kelvin Thomson blamed the uncontrolled growth (and the lack of quality that came with it) on the previous government's policy of facilitating applications for permanent residence by graduating foreign students. So while it's true that:

"Agents overseas have had a field day telling students that all they have to do is sign up for these courses in Australia, pay big fees, and they'll be guaranteed permanent residence here in Australia....and...[that] international students being bashed, and exploited, dodgy colleges ripping them off and going bankrupt"

The proposal is basically for a 2 year cooling off period - so the graduating students would be required to return to their home country (or at least leave Australia) for two years before being eligible to apply for permanent residence. It is argued that this will clean up the sector.

I don't doubt that this will probably stamp out lots of the dodgy operators but I'm not sure what impact it will have on "real" high quality university courses. Our universities have come to depend on the income that students generate. It would not be good for local students if university income was dramatically cut by this change. On the other hand, I can't see why people who have substantially invested in an Australian education shouldn't be given some incentive to stay. Nothing in immigration policy is ever easy!

The full text of Mr Thomson's speech is available on Hansard for 19 October (page 47) - click here.

Photo used under creative commons licence:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mklingo/ / CC BY-ND 2.0