Speaking exclusively with The PIE News, Phil Honeywood, IEAA CEO, shared insights into recent dialogue with the government, which hints at the changes to come for the contentious visa processing directive.
The directive will remain in place following the government’s failure to secure enough support for the ESOS Amendment Bill that has dominated headlines with its intention to cap international enrolments.
“Australia’s National Council for International Education, including 10 non-ministerial expert members and four federal ministers, had a constructive meeting in parliament last week,” Honeywood told The PIE.
“Stakeholder concerns about next steps, following on from the failure to pass the enrolment caps legislation, were discussed openly with the ministers.”
“The government’s narrative to date has been that if the legislation did not pass then the problematic Ministerial Direction 107 would just be reinstated as the key student visa processing mechanism. As this would, in practice, give priority to a small group of lowest risk rated public and private providers over the majority of others then little support was expressed for its reintroduction.
“Instead, the most likely outcome will be an adjustment to both the Ministerial Direction, and student visa processing staff allocations, to ensure greater fairness in approvals for all education providers prior to the looming federal election.”
The most likely outcome will be an adjustment to both the Ministerial Direction, and student visa processing staff allocations
Phil Honeywood, IEAA
MD107, introduced in December 2023, prioritises processing student and student guardian visa caseloads based on the assumed risk level of education providers and the student’s country of citizenship. All visas continue to be processed but “low risk” applications are fast-tracked, which has led to an outcry among many in the sector about first-class, second-class and even third-class assumptions.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education last week told The PIE: “The international education sector is important to Australia. The Australian government wants to provide a better and fairer system that supports the entire sector to benefit from international education.
“Arrangements to improve the integrity and sustainability of the international education sector are set out in the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024. This Bill has not passed parliament in time for arrangements to be implemented by 1 January 2025.
“As a result, Ministerial Direction 107 will remain in place to manage considerations of student visa applications in an orderly fashion.”
However, Honeywood said it is important to note that “the government has not yet chosen to resile from its 270,000 target for new overseas students in 2025”.
“It also remains keen to incentivise more offshore teaching (TNE) of Australian qualifications, notwithstanding that its caps exemptions for TNE are no longer available,” he added.