Australia’s reputation amongst overseas students is “shaky”, one expert has warned, with recent migration policy changes causing over 1 in 4 prospective students to look elsewhere and many others more interested in living in Australia than the jobs it will provide.

Most students studying in Australia come because it offers better career prospects than their home countries, with 63 per cent of respondents to the new Ascent One study – for which YouGov polled 1,058 current, past and prospective international students in Australia, China, India, Philippines, and Colombia – saying that they had chosen to study in Australia for the job opportunities it offered.

This, despite the figures suggesting that the quality of Australian education has slumped in recent years – with 35 per cent of past students saying the quality of their Australian education had exceeded their expectations, compared to just 21 per cent of current students.

“While the majority of students still recommend Australia as a good place to study,” Naresh Gulati, founder and CEO of migration services platform provider Ascent One, said, “our reputation as a world-class destination for study is shaky at best and needs urgent attention.”

Despite falling perceptions of the quality of Australian education – and the finding that 44 per cent of overseas students ended up working outside their fields of study – more than half of respondents from India, Philippines, and Colombia still believe Australia offers better career opportunities than their home country.

Significantly, just 34 per cent of Chinese students – who are by far the largest cohort of international students studying in Australia – said the same.

Poor communication around migration changes

The figures confirm that the changes introduced by the government’s new Migration Strategy – which was introduced in December and passed Parliament in February – have convinced many students Australia is no longer the best place for them to study.

That policy made a range of changes including cuts to overseas student numbers, development of new pathways targeting specific skills, stricter English language requirements, and tougher regulations to prevent employers using student visas as a back door to financially abuse low-skilled workers.

Fully 27 per cent of prospective students saying they will now look elsewhere, while 14 per cent of current students said the new policies meant they may stop studying in Australia.

Even students from countries with low career prospects said the new policies would drive them elsewhere: even though more than half of students from Colombia – Australia’s sixth largest cohort of overseas students – said Australia had better job prospects, 27 per cent said the new policies would stop their Australian studies.

Some 21 per cent of Philippines students and 17 per cent of Indian students said the same, while many others from all countries are still undecided about whether they will continue.

Despite being the least optimistic about their job prospects in Australia, Chinese students were by far the most determined to stay, with 91 per cent saying they would continue their studies in Australia despite the new migration policy.

So why do so many want to stay in Australia despite anti-student migration policies and declining career prospects?

The figures suggest that Australia’s broader reputation as a desirable place may be one reason, with 85 per cent of survey respondents saying they would recommend Australia as a place to study and 82 per cent reported that they had, will, or were likely to apply for an Australian permanent resident visa.

And while ICT students have generally fared better than most – a recent ACS study found that most international ICT students find “fulfilling” work in the sector – its implications were raising concerns from day one as universities began rejecting applications from prospective students who would have commenced their studies in Australia this year.

Fully 41 per cent of international students are still unaware of the new migration policies, the study found, with 77 per cent of those reporting that they found out about the changes by themselves.

That means many overseas migration agents are still unaware of the changes, ignoring them, or failing to communicate them to applicants.

Gulati – a former international student who went on to found a business based on helping higher education providers manage agent networks, admissions, and marketing – warned that the figures confirm that the Australian government has still failed to fill what he called a “big communication gap between the government, education providers, agents and students that needs to be fixed.”

“The country is sacrificing future Australians at our own cost,” he said, noting that just two months after the new migration policy was introduced “the government’s decision to target international student visas to cut migration numbers is already having an impact.”