Australia refusing visas to Indian students, they don’t know why

“ There were some excellent students with me, but I was stunned after their applications were turned down. Now, some of them have reapplied for Australia, while others have opted for Canada,” Chitresh Dhawan added. 

Like Canada, the UK, and the USA, Australia is also on the top list of Indian students – mainly from Punjab – to pursue higher studies, especially after relaxation of Covid travel restrictions Down Under last December.

A large number of Indians have been applying for student visa for the last one year or so, but the Australian immigration department – after an initial good response – has been rejecting applications, apparently without rhyme or reason.

Experts say that some Australian authorities are turning down student visas by adopting an opaque and non-transparent system.

Australian education visa expert Chitresh Dhawan said that in his around three-decade experience in educational consultancy, he has never seen such a move by the Australian immigration department where several student visas are being rejected for no reason.

“I don’t understand what criteria are being followed by the Australian authorities while rejecting the applications of students. Even the visas of students having an excellent educational record, high IELTS. bands and meeting all financial conditions are being rejected without specifying any reason which shows lack of transparency,” Dhawan said, adding that it seems the visas are being rejected at the whims and fancies of some officials.

He said that the rejection rate has reached up to 50% this year as per the records of the Australian immigration department in both vocational education training programme and in higher education.

Dhawan said that they have taken up the matter with Australian High Commission so as to bring more transparency in the system. The visas must be rejected only if objectivity is at stake. If the immigration department doesn’t act fast in this direction then Australia may lose a large chunk of good students to other countries which are welcoming students, he added.

Till July this year, nearly 96,000 Indian students had been studying in Australia.

Another renowned educational consultant for studying in Australia said on the condition of anonymity that it seems they are selecting students based on a lottery system without going into the details of the profile of the students, as a large number of intelligent students’ applications have been rejected without giving any valid reason.

“There were some excellent students with me, but I was stunned after their applications were turned down. Now, some of them have reapplied for Australia, while others have opted for Canada,” he added.

“No doubt that in some cases frauds were committed by a few travel agents, but such things cannot be generalised. Every case must bescrutinised individually on its merits, instead of rejecting it based. on the figment of some official’s imagination. If some fraudulent means were adopted by some students, who were misled by someunscrupulous travel agents while completing their documents, that does not mean that everyone is adopting the same method. 

They should not paint everyone with the same brush,” said a student visa aspirant who scored 8 bands in IELTS but his application was rejected. He has now reapplied again.

The Australian government allows students to work along with their studies to meet their expenses, and also after completion of their studies they are allowed to work for 2 to 4 years. Even options for Permanent Residency (PR) are available and aspirants fancy such student-friendly facilities.

Experts said that though the study expenses in Australia, the UK and Canada are almost similar, unlike other countries – where a one-year advance fee and one-year living expenses are required to be paid – in Australia students need to pay one-semester fee upfront and for living expenses, they need to show the funds in their respective accounts instead of paying in advance.

For Australian student visa, one needs 5.5 bands in each module of IELTS and overall 6 bands for certificate and diploma in arts, business and engineering, and most of the students opt for such courses only, an expert said, adding that for bachelor’s and master’s degree, one needs 6 to 6.5 bands.

Majority of experts said that students must avoid unscrupulous agents while preferring to study in Australia.(IndiaExpress) Reports