Tougher Aussie English test for student migrants

Melbourne, Sep 18 (UNI) Australia is poised to make it harder for the international students seeking permanent residence in the country by introducing higher English fluency levels.

Indian students are in the top bracket of the applicants for permanent residence in Australia.

The English language measures, likely to be introduced from July next year, have been recommended after strong criticism of visa rules which allow a international student to get permanent residence after two years' studies in one of the universities down under.

Some research reports have revealed that a large number of students accepted as skilled migrants after getting Australian education cannot get jobs in their field of study later because of poor English language skills.

Bob Birrell, the director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University and a well-respected demographer, has co-authored one such report.

The Australian universities are becoming more and more dependent on full-fee paying international students to remain afloat as government goes on reducing its financial support to higher education institutions.

The criticism of the universities for aggressively recruiting students with poor English has reached such a stage that these institutions are being dubbed as 'visa factories'.

Most of the international students interested in the Australian permanent residence opt for courses on the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL).

''If your occupation is on the MODL you get extra 15 points in the general skilled migration points test,'' explains a Melbourne-based migration consultant Michael Lindsay.

''You get 20 points if your job is on the MODL and you also manage to bag a job offer,'' he says.

''The MODL incentives have been designed to attract migrants in the occupations where Australia faces a skills shortage,'' Lindsay added.

Bob Birrell's report has also recommended that students should get a score of six in International English Language Testing System (IELTS) tests before they are accepted for skilled migration. Extra points have been recommended for a score of seven or higher.

But these recommendations, if implemented, could mean a drop in the Australian universities international enrollments.

''What we've seen is that most of the growth in overseas education since 1999 has served a migration object,'' Dr Birrell said in a media statement.

''Universities have organised themselves to maximise the flow of (international) students, and it has had a big impact on what universities do.

''And that's one of the reasons why the reforms that we recommended are of some significance, because it will change these arrangements and it could threaten the growth in enrolments that's occurred in recent years,'' the Aussie academic added.

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