Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke will unveil a migration overhaul on 17 September that, according to ABC News reporting on 16 September, will "effectively bar" international students from sponsoring dependants. The policy is aimed at reducing net overseas migration from 300,000 to 225,000 by 2028. Last financial year 337,427 student visas were granted, with nearly 46,000 issued to dependants; Chinese nationals are consistently the largest student cohort. Under the proposal, primary student-visa numbers will remain uncapped, but secondary applicants (spouses, partners, children) will no longer be eligible, except perhaps for doctoral candidates. The government also intends to tighten "visa-hopping," making it harder for graduates to shift onto protection visas or successive temporary categories. For mainland Chinese families, the change could up-end education-migration pathways that rely on a working spouse to join the student, provide child-care and earn supplementary income. Education agents warn the measure may push prospective students toward Canada and the UK, both of which still allow dependants for postgraduate courses, although the UK restricts taught-master’s level. Australian universities—already facing a 10 percent cap on offshore marketing spending—fear enrolment declines in business and IT programmes popular with Chinese students. Stakeholders have urged Canberra to exempt high-value research fields and to publish regulations swiftly to avoid a pre-implementation application surge. Employers that rely on graduate work-rights to fill skill shortages in regional areas may also feel the pinch if the student pipeline shrinks. Details of transitional arrangements and any grandfathering for current enrollees will be critical for campus mobility planners and HR teams managing sponsored internships.
Source: ABC News (Australia)
