DIAC releases 2012/2013 program year student visa data

DIAC has released the final quarterly report for student visa applications and grants for the 2012/2013 program year as well as their report on program trends since 2006/2007.

The number of offshore visa applications (new demand) has been increasing slowly since July 2011, with the renewal of demand accelerating in the last half of the 2012/2013 program year. There was a significant increase in visa applications in the 4th quarter in particular – both onshore (+23%) and offshore (+20%). Onshore applicants might have been trying to get in ahead of the visa fee increases being implemented from 1 July. Offshore applicants might have been influenced by the recent decline in the strength of the Aus$.

The number of visas granted offshore also increased in 2012/2013 compared with the previous year, by +13% (+16,691). This growth was driven primarily by the Higher Education sub-class of visa (which includes ELICOS students who have English language courses packaged with higher education). Offshore Higher Education visa grants in 2012/2013 were up by +29% (+16,166).

Whilst a relatively small proportion of the overall ELICOS cohort, it was good to see increasing numbers of visas granted for stand-alone ELICOS visas (not packaged with programs in any other sector). Offshore Independent ELICOS visa grants were up by +1% (+159) – the first growth since 2008/2009, with onshore Independent ELICOS visa grants up by +19% (+1,650).

It was also good to see an increase in the visa grant rates, with the offshore visa grant rate in 2012/2013 increasing to 91.1% compared with 85.7% in 2011/2012.

The data shows no good news for VET providers, however, with total visa grants for VET continuing to decline (-16%), with offshore down by -12% and onshore down by -17%.

Click here for the DIAC Report – Student visa program quarterly report: quarter ending at 30 June 2013.

Click here for the DIAC Report – Student visa program trends: 2006-07 to 2012-13.

English Australia Member Colleges and Affiliates can access a detailed analysis of the data from an ELICOS perspective by logging in to the following section of the English Australia website:

COLLEGES » Services & Resources » Marketing Resources » Statistics/Research

The data from DIAC is useful for:
a) understanding trends in the pipeline of students across all types of pathways;
b) understanding the pipeline of students by type of program eg. stand-alone English, English for High School, English for further study etc.; and
c) understanding trends in onshore vs offshore student visa applications and grants.