The Bhutanese Leading the way.
For Bhutanese families, Australia’s latest student visa changes could fundamentally change the way studying in Australia is planned, financed and pursued.
The most immediate change is that international students will generally no longer be able to bring their spouses or family members. Those already in Australia will not be separated, while exceptions will remain for students from the Pacific and ASEAN countries and some courses, including PhDs.
This will matter considerably in Bhutan, where travelling to Australia with a spouse has increasingly become part of the student migration model.
For many families, the decision to send one member to Australia was never simply about tuition and a qualification. It was also about whether the family could relocate together, share living costs and allow the spouse to work. Removing that option makes Australia a very different proposition.
It is likely to reduce the number of Bhutanese applicants. ABEC itself expects numbers to fall. But the bigger question is whether some students who genuinely want an Australian education will now choose other destinations or postpone their plans because they cannot afford to leave their family behind.
The second major change could have an equally important effect. Australia is moving to stop students from repeatedly changing qualifications as a way of extending their stay. The new rule is straightforward: students can progress up the qualification ladder, but not move down it simply to remain in the country. A bachelor’s graduate moving to a master’s is legitimate progression; repeatedly changing courses for migration purposes is not.
For Bhutanese students, this closes an avenue that may have encouraged some to treat education as a pathway to longer-term migration rather than the primary purpose of their stay.
That is ultimately the message Australia is sending: come to study, and make the education the purpose.
Bhutanese students and parents therefore need to adjust quickly. The assumption that a student can arrive, bring a spouse, change courses and extend the stay no longer holds.
Australia has not closed its doors. But the old Australia model is changing, and Bhutanese families need to understand that before committing substantial money and years of their lives.
Migration has been politicized before it has been analyzed.–Paul Collier