Australia is emerging as the most popular destination for the Indian students. In the year, 2013-14, around 34,100 visas were granted to the Indian students, an increase of 38% when compared to the previous year. Even though the students from China outnumbers the students from india, the increase in the student visas which are granted to the Chinese citizens was much less at 12% with around 60,300 students from China being granted student visas during the year 2013-14.
According to the study report that was released, visas that are granted by Australia to the foreign students in total has risen over the last three year period, reaching at a total of 2.92 lakh in the year 2013-14, which is also 13% increase over the last year. The study also cited that one of the six students at the level of university in Australia is from abroad.
Major attraction for the Indian students is the (subclass 485) temporary graduate visa which also provides the opportunity for the eligible graduates to achieve a small amount of practical experience in Australia followed by their studies. This visa has got two streams, graduate work stream and post-graduate work stream. For the graduate work stream, the students should have the qualification related to the occupation on the list of skilled occupation (SOL). Wide range of engineer, medical professionals, accountants, software developers, and solicitors. Also, the vocational courses such as carpenters, plumbers, and electricians are covered by the SOL. The validity of such visa is upto 18 months. The post-study work stream is for the students who graduated in the higher degree. And its tenure could be upto 4 years.
As on 30th June 2015, there were 4,419 students from India who holds the subclass 485 visa that represents 16.8% of total visas in this category. – As told by the DIBP spokesman.
To obtain a degree in Australia, the students who are applying for the subclass 485 visa also requires to meet the requirement of English language.
Australia being attractive for the student community, for the third continuous year, India was the top country for sourcing under the migrated program of Australia. With around 39,000 visas being issued to the Indian citizens during the year 2013-14. This makes up the 21% of visa issued under the migration program. China was next to follow with the 26,800 visas being issued and the UK was third spot with 23,000 visas being issued.
The skilled workforce of India is continuously in demand. Even though the figure of subclass 457 visas are granted to the skilled workers decreased by 22% to 98,600 in the year 2013-14, for the second year in the India was at the top with a grant of 24,500 visas. Followed by the UK with 16,700 and China with 6,200 visas being issued under this category.
