Student Visa Applications for Australia Increase by Almost 22%
For the first 3 months of 2017, the number of visa applications rose by 18.5% in comparison with the same period in 2016 and visas granted from Jan-Mar 2017 increased by nearly 22% compared to 2016.
This percentage increase equates to just under 18,000 more student visas compared to the first quarter of 2016.
The growth comes from Australia's top 20 sending markets, with China and India driving much of it. Just under 4,000 more student visas were granted to Chinese students and over 2,500 to Indian students between Jan and March 2017.
The market is concentrated in higher education, ELICOS, VET and other non-award studies.
By level of study, visa grants for higher education students represented about half of the increase for 2017, with the balance roughly equally distributed across the ELICOS, vocational education and training, and non-award sectors.
The volume of student visas granted over the past 3 years reflects the dramatic recovery in international enrolment that Australia began to record in 2013.
Finally, the following table provides a snapshot of Australia’s fastest-growing source markets for the first quarter of 2017.
The markets represented in the table accounted for 81% of total growth in visa grants for the quarter.