Yesterday on Day 1 of the AAERI convention, AAERI reiterated precise recommendations to keep Australia in reckoning in the post Covid era. The recommendations were part of my presentation as President of AAERI (see my blog from yesterday) and I share two slides from that here.
Interestingly, there is a major report now available which too tends to highlight the need to tweak the PSW regulations to keep Australian competitive.
KPMG released PATHWAYS TO RECOVERY report:
“Both the push and the pull factors for Chinese students are changing such that we will not see the same numbers in the future. Competition from markets such as the United Kingdom and Canada is becoming tougher,” KPMG says in a report released last week.
KPMG notes that during the GFC the Australian government leveraged international student numbers to fill gaps in the Australian economy and it suggests the same policy could be implemented again.
“The policy response implemented during the Global Financial Crisis could be used as a strategy to increase overseas student numbers in Australia post-COVID-19.”
KPMG recommends a combination of measures could be adopted:
- make post-study work rights easier and last longer;
- add further permanent residency points to those post-study work rights;
- add even further permanent residency points where both the course and post-study work rights are in an area of skill shortage outlined in updated skills lists; and
- introduce an accelerated pathway to residency program for regional students based on updated skills lists.
KPMG indicates that using Australia’s international higher education system as a pathway to residency has the advantages of selecting younger, highly skilled migrants who have already had the experience of living in Australia during their studies, the accounting firm said.
A copy of the report can be downloaded from this link.
On Day 2 of the AAERI Convention, Professor Ly Tran, Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the School of Education of Deakin University made an excellent presentation on Post-study work and implications for international education recovery and I share here a few slides from the presentation though would recommend a download of the full presentation which is with substance and data to drive the need to focus on the tweaking of the PSW arrangements.
Professor Ly Tran’s presentation slides can be downloaded from the link below:
At the Convention, Professor Tran did indicate that the currently onshore International students have not been able to utilise their PSW option or even if they have availed the same, due to the pandemic, it has been impacted. It will be useful if the Australian Government could consider offering one extra year PSW to the impacted students. This is in line with the recommendations being made by AAERI too.
Let’s hope that the policy makers have their ears to the ground and that Australia can remain an attractive destination for International students in future too.
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