Australia Clears Confusion on Student Visa Caps, Strengthens Ties with India: Minister-Counsellor

Johnston outlines Australia's response to India’s NEP 2020, emphasizing initiatives in dual degrees, joint research, and cultural exchange.

In an exclusive interview with Shiksha.com, Mathew Johnston, Minister-Counsellor (Education and Research) at the Australian High Commission in New Delhi, addresses confusion around new enrollment levels and visa caps for Indian students in Australia. Johnston clarifies that while Australia is setting a national enrollment level to ensure quality, there are no specific restrictions targeting Indian students. He also highlights Australia’s legislative protections for international students, discusses scholarship opportunities, and details the long-standing education and research partnerships with Indian institutions. Johnston further outlines Australia's response to India’s NEP 2020, emphasizing initiatives in dual degrees, joint research, and cultural exchange.

Q. There were reports that Starting January 1, 2025, the Australian Government will implement a cap on international student enrollments, which will impact Indian students. Can you clarify this?

Mr. Johnston: Australia is one of the top destinations for Indians. There was news that the Australian government has put a cap on a certain number of Indian students coming to Australia from certain regions or some states. I want to correct that, that's not correct. There is confusion on that. The Australian government has not capped any regions in India. It is not capping Indian students, just to be very clear.

The Australian government is introducing what we're calling a national enrollment level or a national planning level for the total number of students from anywhere in the world who can start a new program in Australia in 2025. So we are setting a limit of 270,000 new enrollments, but this is not a cap on the total number of international students allowed in Australia.

And that is pretty much the same as the numbers in 2023, which was already an all-time high in terms of international student numbers in Australia. We're doing that because we are focused on ensuring the quality of the student experience and ensuring integrity. Coming out of COVID, our numbers rapidly rose.

There were some unfortunate instances, very publicly known, of exploitation. The Australian government won't tolerate that. We are still the only country in the world with legislative protections and legislation and laws to protect international students.

We're the only one in the world that does that. So these measures, it's not about locking people out, it's not about India. It's about ensuring that there is sustainable growth in Australia so that all students get a really good quality experience.

I know there's a lot of misinformation in the media about caps and the like. The truth is, we are setting enrollment levels and we will manage the growth year to year with our institutions. It'll be a negotiation.

Many universities will be able to enroll more students next year than they have done this year. So I know it's complicated.

Q. How is the growth in terms of numbers from India?

Mr. Johnston: India has grown very strongly. In the post-COVID? I don't have the exact number in my mind. But in terms of percentage? What I'll tell you is there's been a very significant increase in student enrollment in Australia. This is not about India, this is all students.

We saw an increase in university enrollments of 10%. India contributed to that quite a bit and that's really good. We're really happy about that.

There's also an increase of around 45% in our private vocational colleges. And so that's where we think some of the problems are. So we want to reduce that one and increase universities.

Q. Do you want to talk about some of the scholarships which the government is offering for international students and in particular Indian students?

Mr. Johnston: Sure. We have a Centre for Australian-India Relations. It's very unique in the world. It offers mystery scholarships, and friendship scholarships for full study in Australia. And our universities are quite generous in offering a number of scholarships for Indian students as well. Anything else that you want to talk about or want to add? I think that's good.

Q. How do you look at partnerships between Indian and Australian universities?

Mr. Johnston: Australia's had a long-term partnership and friendship with India, particularly in education. Our government signed our first MOU for cooperation in education policy and regulations in the 1970s and prior to that we've been educating Indian students as part of our Colombo Plan. Which was a program of internationalizing Australia towards the Asia-Pacific during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

So, we have a long-standing partnership and friendship in education. The Deakin University’s journey here in India, we're very proud of. To have been here 30 years, operating before any other international university from around the world shows great vision and shows great confidence and also bravery to come and operate here.

We are very pleased and proud of them being the first university to establish a branch campus here, which I think makes sense given their great focus on innovation and moving forward.

Q. How do you look at the comparison between the Indian higher education system with that in Australia?

Mr. Johnston: We are very close friends with India. Our universities have really taken up the challenge of delivering on NEP 2020. We have a number of dual degrees being implemented and joint degrees, joint PhDs being implemented to really add to the enrollment levels here in India and to bring a taste of Australia here into India. So we're really proud of that and really excited for more of that to happen.

The differences are, there's a lot of alignment between Australia and India's education systems and I think that's why we're natural partners. Our qualifications frameworks are very much the same and very much aligned. We both speak English.

We have similar societal challenges in terms of harnessing the power of technology, research priorities, grappling with climate change and these things. So there's a lot of synergies between Australia and India and we see this very much as a partnership. My minister launched a strategy.

It's Australia's international education strategy for India, responding directly to NEP 2020 and he's very close friendship with Dharmendra Pradhan. We're very committed to that and operating as equals. So we see the Indian education system coming ahead in leaps and bounds.

I think it is rapidly modernizing. It is quickly using technology in a really interesting and innovative way. So we're really pleased to be able to work with them.

Q. So what are some of the key points of that strategy which has been launched? I mean if you could talk about some of those.

Mr. Johnston: It Is not about one, cooperating together between, encouraging our universities to cooperate to solve global challenges, so doing research, cooperation in key issues like energy transition, for example, health, collaborating to educate Indians and Australians for a future global workforce. So we do that through dual degrees, through international branch campuses, through integrating skilling programs in the curriculum here in India, opportunities for greater research and faculty mobility and teacher and student mobility both ways.

Interestingly, Australia's New Colombo Plan means that thousands of Australian students every year come to India with Indian universities and undertake a credit-based short course focused on cultural understanding and joint projects. And those young Australians go back to Australia Transformed and they actually come back then multiple times on their own steam to pursue collaborations in India. So that's just an example of a number of the different initiatives we have going on.