High dollar hurting student numbers

THE Gillard government is under new pressure to ease student visa conditions to bail out the $18 billion international education industry.

THE Gillard government is under new pressure to ease student visa conditions to bail out the $18 billion international education industry.

The Australian dollar was sustained above parity yesterday and Victorian Premier John Brumby warned that the visa crackdown had gone too far.

International education is Victoria's largest export industry at $5.8bn. But the state's once-booming private college sector, which was driven by students seeking permanent residency, is braced for collapses and job losses in the wake of tighter immigration rules and the soaring dollar.

Some desperate private colleges have cut the price of a one-year diploma of business from $8500 to just $3500 in a bid to poach students, The Australian has been told.

The visa crackdown was aimed at stopping immigration rorts and student exploitation at some colleges. But Mr Brumby, who faces an election on November 27, said while a tightening had been needed, the visa changes had gone too far.

"I think some of these things can be addressed by some fine-tuning to the visa requirements," Mr Brumby told Sky News.

In China, promoting Australia to our largest student market, federal Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said the rising dollar was hurting the industry, increasing the price of Australian qualifications by 50 per cent since the start of last year.

But Monash University vice-chancellor Ed Byrne said the key problem was that visa conditions required students to hold money in deposits to cover course fees and living expenses, the cost of which is being hiked by the dollar.

"We can't do much about a high dollar but it would be fairly straightforward to look at the appropriate financial conditions attached to a visa," he said.

Central Queensland University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman has budgeted for a 20-25 per cent drop in new international students next year. He said the government should consider more quickly phasing in improved funding for the sector.

An internal comparison of student visa regimes, compiled by a university and obtained by The Australian on the condition it was not named, shows that a Chinese student wanting to study a business degree in Australia faces having to hold almost $140,000 in the bank for six months to meet visa requirements.

That compares with Britain, where a student wanting to study at a comparable university would need only $28,000 held in the bank for 28 days.