Overseas student acceptance rates plummets in visa priority shuffle

International students have been put to the bottom of the list for visa approvals in a bid to stem migration rates, but many feel they have been targeted unfairly.

Australia’s international students have criticised the rising rejection rate for student visas, as it hits a new high and threatens to damage the reputation of the country’s sandstone universities.

With the Albanese government looking to curb migration rates, the Home Affairs Department has pushed a steep increase in visa denials for overseas students, with one in five being rejected as of December.

The 80.9 per cent acceptance rate, down from 86 per cent in 2022-23 and 91.5 per cent in 2021-22, is the lowest in 18 years.

Frida Perez, 21, a second-year physics student at the University of Sydney, felt the government was targeting international students more than other demographics.

“I think it’s pretty unfair, some of us just want to come study a degree and then that’s it, get out of here. I can understand if they’re concerned by people studying longer degrees and having immigration build up more, but I just think it should depend on the situation,” Ms Perez said.

“I don’t know if it will hurt the universities immediately, but they could potentially take a hit if they don’t do something about it.

“If (a student is) a great applicant, the university should do something to help them out.”

The recent University Accord Review urged the government to begin “diversifying markets to avoid over-reliance on a small number of countries” in its student visa admissions.

“(The government should) work with tertiary education providers to explore opportunities and review visa requirements to support diversification of international student markets within a national strategic framework,” the report reads. “(It should) protect its reputation and ranking as a study destination by lifting course quality and improving the overall student experience.”

According to the University Accord Review, in 2022 there were 1.6 million students in higher education, of which 28.9 per cent were international students. Education was Australia’s fourth-largest export that year.

The visa rate change comes due to a reallocation of prioritisation in migration approvals as several colleges and universities were placed at the lowest priority.

First-year student Caroline Chung came to Australia to study the foundation of work employment and sociology.

Caroline Chung is a first year sociology student from Jiangxi, China, living in Parramatta on a student visa. For many of her peers, they did not get a visa approval until days before the semester began. Picture: Britta Campion/The Australian

“I understand if universities raise their standards for accepting students, but I don’t understand why they’re not offering visas,” Ms Chung said. “It was pretty easy getting mine, but I know people who didn’t get their visas until two days before the semester started.”

Not all student groups have been affected equally; 97 per cent of Chinese nationals applying for student visas have been approved.

Nepali and Pakistani students were some of the worst-affected, with respective drops from 2022-23 of 65.2 to 47.8 per cent, and 66.3 to 62.6 per cent.