Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has discovered new and better migration pathways for international students with strict entry requirements.
According to the announcement by Clare O’Neil, Australia plans to add strictness to entry requirements for overseas students to ensure they cannot deceive the system by pretending to come to the country for education.
Moreover, Canberra is expected to tighten the points test for eligibility for permanent residency while increasing the minimum threshold on foreigners’ earnings before they can transition from student to temporary skilled visas.
However, Clare O’Neil seems inclined to allow all temporary skilled workers to apply for permanent residency and offer faster and simpler immigration pathways for international students with the specific skills and expertise required by the Australian economy.
The next step will involve overhauling the points test, which grants permanent residency to nearly 100,000 former overseas students and the rest of the applicants every year. According to Clare O’Neil, the scheme has not been working as intended since the test fails to reward the skills needed to secure Australia’s future.
In addition to this, Immigration Minister will collaborate with Education Minster Jason Clare and Skills Miniter Brendan O’Connor to deal with the exploitation of graduate workers, ease entry requirements for international students, and ensure that every overseas student comes to Australia with the primary purpose of studying.
Clare O’Neil stated that the authorities want to ensure that the international education sector works effectively, and she is aware of the support from the university and the training sector. Furthermore, the authorities want to build a system with commendable integrity to avoid degrading the experience of students and Australia’s reputation globally.
She made it clear that the new migration strategy doesn’t aim to demotivate international students from enrolling in Australian universities, but it might lead to it one way or another. She further added that the government planned to introduce the reforms efficiently while confirming the announcement of the new entry standards in the near future.
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