Review brings opportunity and obligation - Swinburne Media Centre - 0 views
www.swinburne.edu.au/...ngs-opportunity-and-obligation
policy_development australia higher-education review brings opportunity obligation University
shared by George Bradford on 16 Feb 12
- No Cached
-
George Bradford on 16 Feb 12"Broadly, Knight calls for students applying for programs in the 39 universities to be considered under the least onerous visa arrangements. Immigration will effectively accept the judgement of the universities that a student with an offer is a genuine student (provided they meet other threshold requirements). Applicants for programs in most other sectors will be assessed according to the existing framework. The Department of Immigration will therefore retain direct influence over growth in the non-university sector. The immigration handbrake can be engaged at any time. Universities, on the other hand, are expected to regulate their own growth strategies. "Government departments will monitor the responses of the universities, with the ultimate and humiliating penalty of exclusion from the streamlined visa arrangements available if universities become intoxicated by their new 'freedom'. "We don't yet know the metrics that immigration officials will monitor, these are under development, but we can assume that they will include a range of visa-related measures combined with assessments of student progress and outcomes..................................... "If we are to truly live up to the expectations that the new arrangements place upon us, we will need to focus squarely on recruiting new students at the front end and providing outstanding outcomes (education, research, professional and visa outcomes) at the other. Our international student support programs, already strong by world standards, assume a new importance. Our ability to monitor student progress and to jump in to provide assistance when it is required, will also assume a new importance. We will need to find new and proactive working relationships with DIAC as universities and immigration officials share accountability for visa outcomes."