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Australia, February 17, 2011 – According to data released by the Department of Immigration, visa applications of students from outside Australia fell 32 per cent in the last six months of the previous year compared with the same period in 2009 which in return had fallen with 22 per cent compared with the period of 2008. This percentage drop has caused enormous frightening for universities as they have become dependent on fee income from foreign students.

Monash, one of Australia’s largest university announced last year that it would shed 300 staff to fill in a budget shortfall caused by fewer international students. Chris Evans, the Minister for Tertiary Education led a delegation in November 2010 of university leaders to China (Australia’s largest source of international students) to promote the nation as a study destination. While in December, Senator Evans with Chris Bowen, the Immigration Minister announced a review of the student visa program that is due to take effect midyear.

The latest downfall in Australian visa application was much severe in schools whose enrollments fell by 23 per cent and vocational education down by 22 per cent. While applications for visas in English language courses fell with 14 per cent and those for university courses fell with 11 per cent.

Overall visa applications from each of Australia’s five largest client countries fell by 15 to 29 per cent which were coming from China, India, South Korea, Thailand and Brazil while students from Vietnam fell 36 per cent. Applications from India students fell more than 50 per cent on 2008 – 2009 and those from Nepal with 60 per cent.

There are a lot of issues that hurt the sector the past years and these were the global financial crisis, reputational damage from attacks on students and college closures and the rising value of the Australian dollar. This would surely challenge Australia’s resilience.