I HAVE DONE SEVERAL BLOGS ON THE ISSUE AND FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY, IT IS A REALITY… It is indeed great news for new degree bound students and the big plus is that institutions can market it as an USP for Australian Education. However, I continue to believe that it is unfair in limiting it to only those students whose “first student visa” was after 5th November 2011. There may be reasons for this but I believe that students who chose Australia during 2010-2011 and are now completing their degrees should still have been included. They chose Australia at a time when the world had shown it in poor light and now to keep them out is just not fair, despite any reasons. I am aware that the GTE was not applied on visas prior to 5th November 2011 but also am quite sure that if there was a will, there would have been a way… to include them in it. The bar on limiting the new scheme only to students after this date is also a negative for students who chose to do one degree prior and have begun a new degree thereafter… We seem to be turning unfair even to those who kept faith in Aussie system of education to return for a next level qualification.
Apart from this concern, the new visa is a huge huge plus for new students looking at Australia. Would hope that in the coming period, it will be extended to include the TAFE job-ready graduates too.
Now to provide the extract from the immigration site on what the visa is and for whom…
Post-study Work stream
You can apply for this visa in the Post-Study Work stream if you:
- applied for, and were granted, your first student visa to Australia on or after 5 November 2011
- have completed an eligible qualification from an Australian educational institution
- meet the two year Australian study requirement in the past six months.
First student visa
This stream is only available to you if you applied for, and were granted, your first Student visa to Australia on or after 5 November 2011. If you applied for and were granted any Student visa to Australia (including subclasses 560, 562, 570, 571, 572, 573, 574, 575, 576 or 580) before 5 November 2011, as either the main applicant or the family member of an applicant, you will not be able to apply in this stream.
Qualifications
In the past six months you must have completed one or more of the following qualifications at an Australian educational institution:
- bachelor degree
- bachelor degree with honours
- masters by coursework degree
- masters (extended) degree
- masters by research degree
- doctoral degree.
When is your course completed?
Qualifications are considered to have been completed when your educational institution publicly notifies you that you have met the requirements for the award of the qualification, for example, in a completion letter. Submission of a thesis, or completion of exams, is not sufficient.
This date should not be confused with the date of conferral of your award. The date of conferral is the date that you actually receive your degree, diploma or trade qualification, for example, at a graduation ceremony.
Australian study requirement
In the six months before you apply, you must meet the Australian study requirement. This means that you must have completed one or more courses registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).
Your course must:
- result in the award of a bachelors, masters or doctoral degree
- be conducted in English
- be at least two academic years (92 weeks) duration
- be lawfully completed in no less than 16 months
- be completed at an Australian educational institution in Australia.
English language proficiency courses or enabling programs cannot be used to meet the Australian study requirement.
If you complete a graduate diploma or graduate certificate in a packaged, nested or articulating course leading to an eligible qualification, you can use that study towards meeting the two-year study requirement. For example, you can count a Graduate Diploma in Educational Studies leading to a Master of Education.
You can only use study that leads to an eligible qualification. If you complete a degree and then take a graduate diploma or graduate certificate course, the diploma or certificate course cannot be used to meet the two-year study requirement.
How does the duration of your course count towards this requirement?
You can use CRICOS to find the registered duration of a course. The department will use the same information. A course that is listed on CRICOS as having a 92-week duration is considered to meet the requirement of two academic years.
The department will credit you only with the duration that is listed on CRICOS, even if you take longer to complete your course. Failed subjects and parts of courses taken outside Australia do not count.
If your educational institution awards you credit towards a qualification on the basis of prior learning, that credit may count towards meeting the two-year requirement, but only if the prior learning was in Australia, was in a CRICOS-registered course, and is used only once to meet the Australian study requirement for a visa.
If you take overlapping courses for separate qualifications (for example, a Masters in Finance and a Masters in Accounting), the period of overlap can only be counted once towards the two-year requirement.
You cannot count any studies outside Australia towards the Australian study requirement. The only courses you can count towards the Australian study requirement are those that are completed in Australia.
Visit the immigration site for the full details and process to apply. The above information is from the site itself and available on this link.
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