Australia’s position as a leading study destination has been challenged by high living costs, tuition fees, and visa policy uncertainties, leading to a decline in its university rankings and a two per cent drop in international student preferences.According to research by the international student organisation, IDP, Australia is no longer the preferred study destination for international students.
“Just six months ago, in our last survey round, Australia proudly shared the top spot with Canada as the preferred destination for over 10,000 survey students. However, in this survey round, the US has surpassed Australia with a 24% of respondents favoring the US compared to Australia's 23%. So while we are still holding strong, we are finding ourselves trailing just behind the US.
Following the post-pandemic re-opening, Australia saw a peak in net migration with over 500,000 new arrivals last year. “Now what we have seen with students who are struggling with their English is that they're at much higher risk of exploitation and that they are likely to gather in really low paid work and not be able to move out of that in their time in our country. Now we want to run a good integrity-filled education system here, but we also want to set our students up for success. And if we allow them to come here without functional English that will allow them to work, we're not doing that.
In the same period, the number of new student visa applications dropped for the first time in two years.“Now this is actually less about specific policy changes and more about the perception of Australia as a welcoming destination that's making it less attractive. The Australian governments continue to have high visa rejection rates for incredibly talented, genuine students who have been planning their Australian education for years.