Deakin welcomes review of student visa program

Deakin University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jane den Hollander, today welcomed the Federal Government's announcement of a review into the student visa program.

Professor den Hollander said that a comprehensive review was a sensible approach and would allow options to be explored to address the unintended consequences of previous changes to visa requirements.

"We completely understand the reasons behind the previous changes but the problem is that they have sent an unintended message in international markets that Australian universities have closed down for business," she said.

"That is unfortunate because we provide a quality education for international students and the university sector was never part of the difficulties that the previous changes were designed to address."

Professor den Hollander said she hoped the review would explore possibilities for a more segmented approach to student visas.

"Australia's post-school education system is very diverse with the university sector being highly regulated and enjoying an excellent reputation internationally. I think the difficulties we have been experiencing with previous visa changes have shown that a one-size-fits-all approach will not work," she said.

Professor den Hollander said that she looked forward to participating in the review and seeing a positive result for the university sector and the significant contribution that it makes to the Australian economy.

She said it was important that the outcomes of the review are implemented quickly as competitor markets for international students have been capitalising on Australia's difficulties in recent months.