It was November last year when the government cut its A$550 million funding to just A$350 million after it “recalibrated” its spending due to financial concerns amid the global crisis. Government spokesperson Julia Gillard said the funding had been restored because of the “high quality of applications”.

The renewed funding has come just at the right time for many university vice chancellors who were beginning to worry how they were going to meet the shortfall. Although the government has decided to make the announcements on a state-by-state basis, possibly in order to maximise election capital. Yesterday, the government announced the beneficiaries of Western Australia’s A$105.5 million funding allocation, during a visit by prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Glen Withers, chief executive of Universities Australia welcomed the move to restore the funding. He said: “Universities were becoming quite concerned at delays in specific funding announcements, and at reductions in the available quantum for infrastructure funding through the EIF.”

He added: “The pay-off from higher education for skills and innovation for sustainable economic growth will be advanced by these decisions.” Also saying that this “eliminated concerns” about infrastructure.

Projects benefiting from the restored investment include the University of Western Australia’s Ocean Marine Research Centre, Pilbara TAFE and Central TAFE in Perth.

Tony Pollock, chief of Australia’s leading international education and development organisation, IDP, said the decline was “significant”, and, “a real cause for concern”.

The drop follows in the wake of tighter visa rules following the student attack crisis and has even forced many privately run colleges to shut down due to a lack of applications, according to The Australian.

Pollock added: “It’s tougher to get a student visa, which means people are questioning whether they will ever get a (permanent) visa for Australia, and whether they should look elsewhere to get an education.”

It is also thought that the drop could be worth close to 600 million dollars to the Australian economy over the course of a full year.

India and China are two of Australia’s main sources of international students but tougher immigration and visa laws have been making it increasingly difficult for students to study in the country. Tony Pollock also believes that a lack of certainty about their future is also putting many students off applying: “Offering students the prospect of permanent residency – but only if they are sponsored by an employer – is a very uncertain outcome for those craving certainty.”

However, it is believed the drop may only be the result of a temporary loss of confidence and many believe the figures will improve next year. On the whole Australia is a very successful and popular destination for international students owing to the high standards of education available and the attractive lifestyle on offer.

The Australian Government is also set to be replacing the Critical Skills List, a guide for students seeking information about which skills were most in demand, with a revised Skilled Occupation List to provide a more targeted list of the skills required for the long-term future of the Australian economy.

Have you experienced any recent problems applying for visas to study in Australia? Would a tougher visa application process affect your desire to study in Australia? Let us know what you think.

A report in The Australian has announced that the amount of funds required by international students to study in Australia has been increased from A$12,000 to 18,000 a year.

In previous years, the low figure of $12,000 has been criticised for not accurately representing the real cost of living in Australia’s main cities, including Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. However, the increase may also be disappointing news for poorer students looking to study in Australia next year.

The decision to increase the amount, made by the Australian Government, will help prevent poorer students struggling financially throughout their degrees, and is also part of an effort to clamp down on fraudulent education agents. The report in The Australian revealed that the “move will cut the growing numbers of poorer international students, mainly from India…being recruited by unscrupulous education agents chasing commissions from private vocational colleges.”

An earlier report on India eNews stated how the Australian Government have been “carrying out an audit of several vocational institutes in the country, several who have hired unscrupulous agents to woo international students.”

To learn more about studying in Australia, read the i-studentadvisor Australia guide.

Formerly the Northern American Head of education agent IDP, Leventhal’s new role will see him in charge of developing SUNY’s global operations.

“If the SUNY system is to be the model for the world, then we must strengthen our efforts in international education,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, who recommended Leventhal to the SUNY board.

“Mitch Leventhal is the right person to enhance coordination of our international efforts and to break ground in developing new initiatives,” she continued.

Previously, Leventhal worked as Vice Provost for International Affairs at the University of Cincinnati, where his responsibilities included global strategy and international recruitment. Before that he headed up operations for IDP, an education agent run by 38 Australian universities.

“SUNY’s total global potential has not yet been realised and I am appreciative of the responsibility Chancellor Zimpher and the Board of Trustees have given me,” said Leventhal. “Providing new opportunities for faculty and student across the 64-campus system will be a challenge and one I look forward to; but equally important will be our efforts to leverage our strengths to help New York state companies more effectively compete in a global economy.”

The recruitment scheme sees students awarded laptops, ipods and even airfares depending on the amount of students they recruit. According to The Australian, “recruiting six students earns a return airfare to the home country and seven earns a new laptop”. Whilst eight students equates to “a return airfare and accommodation for two family members at graduation.”

Critics of the scheme have warned that students recruited by students may not be informed with all the information needed for them to choose the right institution or course.

“During my time studying at university in Malaysia, the admission office often offered us incentives for introducing our friends to the university,” commented Malaysian born graduate Gabrielle Saw. “They paid us 700 ringgits or there about for every student we recruited. Sometimes I did feel compromised as I was trying to persuade my friends to choose my university for very selfish reasons.”

However Central Queensland University Vice-Chancellor Scott Bowman has defended the university’s actions, saying: “whilst different, we do not believe our programme has a negative academic impact.”

i-studentadvisor wants to know what do you think? Is it right or wrong for institutions to recruit in this way?

The desired outcome of the overhaul is to increase international student figures and raise the profiles of institutions in the county. The scheme is part of a larger initiative to improve the entire education system in the country.

A report in The Australian stated that the overhaul has included millions of dollars worth of investment into research; and a planned changed from the British three-year undergraduate course model to the four-year US model in 2012. An aggressive recruitment scheme for new faculty has also been high on the agenda for the universities.

“We want to recruit aggressively right away,” says Way Kuo, President of the City University of Hong Kong, one of Hong Kong’s eight public universities. “We’d like to recruit a lot of people from America.” The University of Hong Kong has also hired around 100 professors in the past years, with plans for 100 more. Whilst the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong also have plans to recruit at least 100 new faculty members in the following years.

If you are currently working or considering working at a Hong Kong higher education institution, we would love to hear you thoughts on this topic. E-mail us at: editorial@i-studentadvisor.com