international education

maintains that a further 20 per cent of students studying ELICOS at our English language colleges are doing so under a tourist visa only. It makes sense that if a tourist wants to top up their English conversation skills while on an extended overseas holiday, they’ ll take advantage of this study right.

• Whether it be ELICOS or other short course options( for example, barista, cooking, hospitality training) a tourist visa also serves to provide overseas visitors with potential taster courses that may encourage them to return and undertake a lengthier course at a later date. Such short courses might also act as a confidence booster to potential foreign students – teaching them that they will not flounder in an Australian cultural and study environment.

• Both the tourist and working holiday visas are much less expensive than coming to Australia under a student visa. The process of applying in the student category is also often more rigorous than for the working holiday or tourist varieties. It is a clear barrier to entry for someone interested in studying only five weeks of English to have to pay the same amount for a student visa($ 535) as a foreign student who will be studying here for three years or more.

Clearly a sensible dialogue needs to take place about the benefits that accrue to Australia from various visa categories. There are many unrecognised cultural and economic gains from short-term overseas visitors. The recent negative debate around 457 temporary skilled worker visas is another case in point. Those who advocate bringing down the shutters on young foreign visitors and their associated work rights also need to understand that“ what goes around sometimes comes around”! n

Phil Honeywood is executive director of the International Education Association of Australia.

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