Australasia

The Australian government has spectacularly reacted to the Knight review by adopting all 41 of its recommendations, published last week, ushering in new visa policies for international students in Australia from 2012 that will have far-reaching consequences. In a complete policy mis-match to the UK, which is restricting access to the employment market for international […]

The Australian government invited industry stakeholders to submit opinions online earlier this year, in light of the Strategic Review of the Student Visa Program, and their opinions certainly make interesting reading, suggesting easily resolvable problems in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, and reflecting an appetite for increased regulation for education agencies, many of […]

ELS Educational Services, the self-styled leading recruiter of international students for US higher education, has acquired Universal English College (UEC) in Sydney, increasing its presence in the Australian pathway market. Formed 22 years ago, UEC is one of Australia’s most respected English language schools and was rated 8th best English language school in the world […]

Immigration New Zealand’s Chief Executive, Nigel Bickle, has been talking of his desire to improve visa issuance for international students in a bid to remain competitive with other international study destinations and grow the country’s market share. Visa application centres are also being planned in China and Hong Kong, while one opened in Mumbai, India […]

In typical Australian fashion, the country has expended resources trying to understand the well-publicised attacks on Indian students (and crime in general against international students) from a statistical point-of-view, and adopt counter-measures appropriately. Widespread media coverage of the attacks led to a rapid drop-off in Indian enrolments in 2009 and 2010 and soul-searching among policy-makers […]

An IELTS testing centre at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, is to close after an investigation found that test-takers were able to cheat their results – one newspaper report in The Australian said that students would pay up to AUS$11,000 for fake IELTS results – a competent language proficiency score can mean a pathway […]

New Zealand is the latest country to amend its immigration regulations in an effort to weed out migrants using the student route primarily to access permanent residency. Immigration New Zealand has unveiled new rules that come into play from 25 July. In brief, student attendance and progress will be more closely monitored, as will student […]

Reinforcing the increasing professionalism with which education agencies are being regarded, a representative body for migration agents in Australia, the Migration Institute of Australia (MIA), has

The owners of two convenience stores in Australia were fined in April for underpaying foreign students employed in Melbourne and Geelong.