Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s grovelling tour of India continues, with Allan telling the International Education and Skills Summit, one of India’s largest events for the industry, that she wants more Indian students coming to Victoria:
“Victoria is Australia’s number one destination for international students and the number one destination for Indian international students, and we want to see more students studying in Melbourne and across Victoria, not less”, Allan told the Summit.
“I hope I can extend an invitation to all of you to visit Victoria soon”.
Allan also waved the carrot of work visas and permanent residency to graduates from India, announcing that Victoria will reserve a quarter of its regional skilled work visas for international students. And they can apply for permanent residency after just three years:
“We are ensuring that when students complete their studies, they have every opportunity to live and work in regional Victoria, where their skills are most needed”, Allan told the Summit.
“We’re focused on providing pathways for international graduates to build their futures in regional areas, addressing workforce shortages while offering graduates the chance to contribute to our growing regional cities”.
“I come with three big priorities, education, education and education”, she told the crowd.
What Allan meant to say is that “I come with three big priorities, immigration, immigration and immigration”, because that is really what she is selling here.
Victoria is the leading destination for Indian students in Australia, with 48,633 enrolled in the state as of May 2024, according to the Department of Education:
A recent Navitas poll of study intentions showed that students from South Asia chose a study destination based on their ability to obtain work rights, a low-cost course, and permanent residency. Quality of education was a low priority:
South Asian students care about immigration, not education quality.
As noted by Associate Professor Salvatore Babones’ in his latest book “Australia’s Universities, Can They Reform”:
“For many South Asian students, a student visa is a very expensive but thinly disguised work visa”.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has deliberately ignored the many negative consequences arising from the expansion of international students. These include the collapse of pedagogical standards, the proliferation of ‘ghost colleges’, widespread wage theft, the rental crisis, and so on.
Even the CEO of the International Education Association of Australia, Phil Honeywood, labelled Australia’s international education system a “Ponzi scheme” for luring non-genuine students through migration channels.
Indian students are at the centre of this Ponzi scheme (for example, see here, here, here, and here).
Jacinta Allan has yet again demonstrated that Victoria is a Ponzi economy centred on maximising immigration volumes rather than quality.
Allan will do whatever it takes to force-feed Melbourne to 9 million people by 2056, regardless of the costs for living standards.
