Australia eases visa laws for Indian, Chinese students

"This would mean students from countries like India and Pakistan would be able to apply for a student visa with up to A$20,000 (approximately Rs.1.1 million) less in the bank," Moninder Singh added.

This announcement is likely to be welcomed by the Vocational Education and Training (VET) and English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) sector institutes who have been affected by a significant downturn in the number of international student enrolments.

"The VET sector, which has been struggling from the last three-four years, shall see the revival in the education industry," Khairra said while talking to IANS.

The Australian VET sector providers experienced a dramatic drop in the number of enrolments from India after the alleged racist attacks on south Asian students in 2009.

The plummeting graph became much worse as the Labour government decided to tighten the visa laws for students from higher Assessment Level countries (e.g. India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, etc.) studying in the VET institutes.

Even before the latest reforms, Australian has been gaining traction as a favoured destination for Indian students wishing to study overseas.

The overall number of Indians applying for Australian student visa has experienced a dramatic increase (115 percent) in the past one year or so. The visa grants from India has also gone up in three figures.

Even though the number of Indian students getting Australian visa is very small compared to the pre-2009 figures, the South Asian country continues to be the second-largest source country for international student enrolments in Australia.