{"id":168505,"date":"2025-09-25T16:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/168505\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T16:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:56:08","slug":"australias-peak-bodies-urge-visa-fee-reduction-in-letter-to-prime-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/168505\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s peak bodies urge visa fee reduction in letter to Prime Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s leading international education bodies \u2013 International Education Association of Australia (IEAA<\/a>), English Australia<\/a> and the\u00a0Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia\u00a0(ITECA<\/a>)\u00a0\u2013 have called on the federal government to urgently reduce the country\u2019s AUD $2,000 non-refundable student visa application charge.<\/p>\n

In July 2025, the government hiked<\/a>\u00a0the student visa application fee to $2,000. The move followed a 125% fee increase implemented just one year earlier, from $710 to $1,600.<\/p>\n

In a joint letter addressed to the Prime Minister, treasurer, finance minister, and all six ministers on the council for international education, the organisations are pressing for immediate relief for certain student cohorts, specifically those applying to:<\/p>\n

independent ELICOS programs and staying in Australia for less than 52 weeks<\/p>\n

non-award courses and staying in Australia for less than 52 weeks<\/p>\n

Australia now has the highest student visa charges in the world. According to the signatories of the letter \u2013 Phil Honeywood, CEO of IEAA, Ian Aird, CEO of English Australia and Felix Pirie, CEO of ITECA \u2013\u00a0a 50% reduction for these cohorts is \u201cboth fair and necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese students typically seek a short study experience rather than a multi-year qualification. Requiring them to pay the full $2,000 non-refundable fee for a course lasting months or weeks is inequitable especially when compared to longer award-conferring programs,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

The sector leaders outlined the \u201csevere impact\u201d on independent English language providers in particular, noting school closures<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has long benefited from the soft power and cultural exchange generated by short-term study abroad programs. Other countries actively encourage such programs, adding diversity and global perspectives to their student cohorts.<\/p>\n

Requiring [students] to pay the full $2,000 non-refundable fee for a course lasting months or weeks is inequitable especially when compared to longer award-conferring programs
Australian international education bodies<\/p>\n

\u201cAs well as reducing diversity in Australian classrooms, reduced interest for incoming study abroad and exchange programs (due to the disproportionately high visa application charge) will restrict outbound semester exchange opportunities for Australian students over time, as exchange partners seek to correct imbalances with Australian providers,\u201d the letter continued.<\/p>\n

The industry giants argue that maintaining such a high visa application fee is damaging Australia\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

According to the Department of Education, international student commencements in the year to July 2025 were 16%\u00a0lower<\/a>\u00a0than the same period in 2024, with English language colleges (ELICOS) down nearly 40%. <\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> with The PIE News, assistant minister for international education Julian Hill addressed the strong feedback coming from ELICOS and study abroad providers that visa fee hikes are having a disproportionate impact on their enrolments. However, Hill suggests it is not the only factor at play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe correlation between a reduction in offshore student numbers was not actually with the first increase to the visa fee\u2026 the correlation with the more significant drop in student numbers was when we tightened up the\u00a0visa integrity<\/a>\u00a0settings because of some of the behaviour we were seeing from certain markets,\u201d said Hill.<\/p>\n

Despite this, he sought to assure stakeholders tuned in to the live broadcast that the government is taking their feedback seriously. \u201cI\u2019ve asked the department to prepare options for government to look at\u2026 we are listening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s leading international education bodies \u2013 International Education Association of Australia (IEAA), English Australia and the\u00a0Independent Tertiary Education…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,110355,110356,110357,110358,44],"class_list":["post-168505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-elicos","tag-english-australia","tag-ieaa","tag-iteca","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}