International Students Face Stricter Visa Rules as Government Aims to Cut Migration

University leaders and students have expressed concern over the federal government's plan to bar most international students from bringing their families to Australia under sweeping migration changes. The move is part of a broader bid to lower overseas net migration numbers.

In an address at the National Press Club, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said international students would no longer be able to attach their families to their student visas. However, "special visa conditions" for citizens of Pacific and South-East Asian nations, and for certain courses like PhDs, would apply.

Those with family already in Australia would not be affected, Mr Burke said. "Anyone who already has their family attached to a visa and is already here, we're not going to be breaking up families onshore," he said.

Mr Burke also announced that the government would clamp down on so-called "visa hopping" by forcing students who wanted to transfer between courses to apply for a new visa.

Perth migration agent Manpreet Mann, who himself came to Australia from India on a student visa at age 18, said he agreed with many of the measures announced by Mr Burke. But Mr Mann said he worried about what the announcement regarding families would mean for universities' reputations abroad and "Australia as a brand".

"At the moment Australia is not very appealing," he said. "We are fighting against somebody paying $2,500 to Australia to lodge a student visa and not bring their partner, whereas [they pay] 85 euros to go to Europe where they can bring their family members."

Universities say the hit to international education will lead to funding shortfalls. Higher education stakeholders said the sweeping migration changes would hurt their $55 billion export industry — Australia's fourth largest.

Regional Universities Network chair and University of New England vice-chancellor Chris Moran said economies in regional Australia would be particularly hard hit. "They'll move more slowly. There will be direct local effects of services of the flow of funds in our communities," he said.

Mr Burke emphasised that the government had long been working on the visa changes and denied these were in response to the current political climate around migration.

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy said Australia "should be competing for the world's best students and the skills, investment and ideas they bring — not competing to see who can drive them away fastest".

Group of Eight Universities chief executive Vicki Thomson said there was a "race to the bottom" among Australian political parties "to see who can decimate our international education sector quickest".

Professor Moran said previous tightening of the allocation and success rates of visas had already caused major funding gaps for Australian universities. "You're either going to shrink the Australian higher education sector and the quality of the experience of Australians or you're going to have to supplant those funds from other government funding. There's not really a third way," he said.

International Students Representative Council of Australia president Weihong Liang said migration policy debates over housing and infrastructure "should not blame international students collectively".

"It must also consider social cohesion and the real impact on the wellbeing of individual students and their families," he said. "International students are not simply numbers in a migration system. They study, live, build relationships and become part of communities across Australia."

Azizah Raihan, who is studying a Bachelor of Biomedicine at the University of Melbourne, said the news was "pretty worrying".

"I myself am a very family-oriented person. I probably wouldn't have come here if I didn't have an uncle that already lives here," she said. "If that's going to be a thing, it will probably affect those that are planning to come here."

Shilpi Jaiswal, an international student from Nepal studying in Sydney, said it was hard news for migrants "who are doing everything" to better their future and their families back home.

"I was planning to [have] my parents for three months to visit us … but after hearing those things, we are very scared to apply for the visa," she said. "I want to see them in Australia, [for them to] see how I'm doing here, so I was excited."

Design student Sophia Stober, who is from Sierra Leone and Nigeria, said her sister had planned to join her in Melbourne as it was "difficult to find real family here".

"If they're not able to move, I feel disconnected from my people," she said. "It's disheartening to hear that they're not going to be able to come."