From July to December 2023, the Albanese government implemented or announced major tightening of student visa policy, much of which had been needed for many years before the Coalition government introduced measures to accelerate demand for student (and other) visas in early 2022.

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The problem was partly the Coalition government stomping on the immigration accelerator before we were ready for it (I wrote about the risks of that in October 2021) and partly the Albanese government responding far too slowly to booming demand and a range of long-standing integrity/quality issues.

Despite the generally very good measures taken by the Albanese government in the second half of 2023, offshore student visa application rates continued at record levels driven by accelerated demand associated with COVID-era policy settings, a very strong labour market, pathways to record levels of permanent migration and now the impact of competitor nations such as the UK and Canada tightening policy much more dramatically and in a much more blunt way.

To drive down student contribution to booming net migration, the government has also been refusing offshore student visa applications at record levels and slowing visa processing (ie the backlog is again growing).

That is........

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