Australia, 28th September: Latest changes announced to Australian student visa norms must also be applicable to the vocational education and training sector, the South Australian government has asserted.
This is in response to the declining figures of international student enrolments in VET(vocational education and training) sector of South Australia in the current year.
VET sector suffers due to strict Australian student visa norms—Expressing his deep concern over such falling number of foreign students in the VET sector in South Australia, Jack Snelling, South Australian Employment, Training and Further Education Minister, called conditions for student visas as the primary factor behind such a downfall in VET enrolments.
The number of new foreign student enrolments in VET courses in South Australia has come down from 2300 last year to 1517 this year, figures by Education Adelaide’s research revealed.
Apply student visa reforms to VET–The government of SA (South Australia) wants to increase the demand of VET courses among foreign students, Snelling added. And this can be done by extending the latest changes announced in Australian student visa norms to the VET sector of SA, he informed.
It may be mentioned that the government of Australia had announced a series of changes in Australian student visa rules following a review conducted by Michael Knight, a former NSW federal minister and a student visa adviser.
The review aimed to find ways for increasing the number of overseas students coming to Australia for studying here.
Student visa reforms won’t apply to VET-Knight– Knight stated that many in VET including quality providers want restoration of the link between migration and education, but he refused at this possibility. He has recommended concessions for increasing foreign recruitment by Australian universities but the VET providers seem to be missing.
The reason cited by Knight for exclusion of special reforms for VET providers is due lack of integrity in the VET sector.
Meanwhile, many VET providers, apart from South Australian government, too want reforms allowing Australian universities to provide working rights following completion of study to be extended to the best private VET providers.
In case, this is not done, it will prove to be big blow to the economy of SA, warned Mark Glazbrook, president of Migration Institute of Australia SA and NT.