Visa blitz leaves Charles Sturt Uni’s new Sydney campus half empty

The federal government’s student visa slowdown has prevented half the students from arriving at Charles Sturt Uni’s new Sydney campus.

Renee Leon, vice-chancellor of Charles Sturt University, and Scott Jones, CEO of Navitas

Charles Sturt University’s new Sydney campus has been forced to open half empty because of the Albanese government’s decision to slow down visa processing, which has blocked many international students from arriving in the country.

Speaking before the official opening of the campus in North Sydney on Monday, vice-chancellor Renee Leon accused the Department of Home Affairs of using “spurious and arbitrary grounds” to reject visa applications from genuine students.

The speed of student visa processing has plunged and visa refusal rates for India and other south Asian countries have skyrocketed since Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, concerned at the rapid rise in Australia’s net migration rate, issued a directive last December to give priority to visas for students enrolling at universities and colleges with the lowest visa risk rating.

The ruling disadvantaged south Asian students, who mainly attend universities with a mid-risk rating, which requires them to meet tougher requirements to show their financial capacity and English language standard.

Professor Leon said only 5 per cent of Charles Sturt University’s international student applicants had their visas refused two years ago, but the refusal rate had now risen to 33 per cent, and was even higher for Indian students, at 54 per cent.

She said this was despite her university setting high standards for students and requiring ver­ification of their English profici­ency, educational achievement and financial status.

Professor Leon said the government’s reasons for the crackdown – to stop non-genuine students coming to Australia – were “simply not matched by our experience where we’re seeing students who clearly are genuine by any test being refused on spurious and arbitrary grounds”.

She said she was “really pleased to be welcoming 65 students who’ve started in first semester with us” at the new campus in North Sydney, which is a partnership with education company Navitas.

It offers business, accounting and IT courses, at bachelor and masters level.

“We would and should have had double that number of students if visa processing had followed the usual and previously predictable route of processing times and acceptance rates,” she said.

Navitas, which partners with eight Australian universities as well as other education institutions in programs for international students, said students coming to Australia from south Asia were affected by “super slow” visa ­processing.

“We’re seeing trickles come out of south Asia,” Navitas chief executive Scott Jones said.

He said Australia had an “awesome” student visa framework to ensure applicants were genuine students but the slow processing was an “own goal” causing ripples across the industry.

“We just need the system to work as it always worked,” Mr Jones said. “I think calm heads need to prevail.”