Ahmedabad: With an aim to benefit the students across all countriesincluding India, the Australian high commission has announced significant changes.  The benefits of the changes include streamlined visa processing and introduction of flexible work conditions for the students studying or plan to study in Australia. The new amendments will be effective from March 24 and March 26, 2012 respectively.

Under the visa regulation, the student visa candidates opting to undertake Bachelor, Masters or Doctoral degree level courses at participating Australian Universities, will be required to meet less stringent evidentiary requirements. This is because these students will be assessed as though they are a lower migration risk, regardless to their country of origin.  In simpler term, it implies that the applicants would now only need to declare on their application that they have enough money to pay for travel, tuition and living expenses for themselves, their partner and their dependent children for the duration of their stay in Australia. Students would be responsible in booking there  flights .They must also have enough money to support their partner and dependent children, even if they do not travel with them to Australia.

The Australian government has further introduced new work conditions which would benefit the students currently studying in Australia or interested in studying in the country. Under this, the previous work condition of 20 hours per week during any week while the course is in session has changed to 40 hours per fortnight during any fortnight while the course is in session. This change would provide the students a greater flexibility with regards to their working rights. In addition, from March 26 2012, Higher Degree by Research (HDR) student visa holders will not be limited in the number of hours that they can work once their course has commenced.

Talking about the developments, Mr. Naresh Gulati, CEO, Oceanic Consultants said, “This is a welcome step and we believe that the new changes would benefit the genuine students. The amendments have the potential of attracting high quality Indian students to the various Australian universities. These changes would certainly help Australia improve the quality of students it attracts and would also convince the students to choose the course that is in line with their career objectives.”

“The new regulations will equally facilitate better employment opportunities for the students both in Australia and elsewhere as they would have the genuine skills set required to be job ready anywhere in the world.”

To get more information on the new changes, please visit: www.immi.gov.au/students/_pdf/2011-university-sector-streamlined-processing.pdf