<p>The total number of student visa applications around the world also dropped by over 20 per cent.<br /><br />Department's spokesman Sandy Logan said racism and violence issue against foreign students were not mainly to be blamed for the slide in visa applications.<br /><br />It was also due to stricter and tougher scrutiny of applications and the immigration department has been rejecting a higher number of applications from India, he said.<br />"It is correct to say that there has been a decline in the number of student visa applications coming from India," he said.<br /><br />There's also been a decline though in the number of student visas applications that have been withdrawn by those applicants. In August last year the government announced strengthened checking for high-risk segments of the student visa programme.<br /><br />"It was a targeted series of checks as a result of analysis which suggested the risk was most significant in India, Mauritius, Nepal, Brazil, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.<br />Once integrity checking is taken into account a student visa application has been refused," he said. <br /><br />Logan further said, "We are aware that there has been an effect across the board as a result of the global financial crisis," he said.<br /><br />"But we were also expecting that with greater and more stringent integrity checks, the student visa application cohort from a number of these countries will drop."<br /><br />Meanwhile, founder and director of International Education Consultants Australia, Kathryn Richardson, said adverse publicity of violent incidents involving foreign students in Australia cannot be ruled out as a factor.<br /><br />"Of course you would expect there would be some sort of response to that. I don't fear, at this stage, that it is something that will be in the long run a dramatic and constant change,"<br /><br />"But if the numbers fall off this year due partly to publicity or bad publicity, it probably wouldn't be surprising," Logan said.</p>
<p>The total number of student visa applications around the world also dropped by over 20 per cent.<br /><br />Department's spokesman Sandy Logan said racism and violence issue against foreign students were not mainly to be blamed for the slide in visa applications.<br /><br />It was also due to stricter and tougher scrutiny of applications and the immigration department has been rejecting a higher number of applications from India, he said.<br />"It is correct to say that there has been a decline in the number of student visa applications coming from India," he said.<br /><br />There's also been a decline though in the number of student visas applications that have been withdrawn by those applicants. In August last year the government announced strengthened checking for high-risk segments of the student visa programme.<br /><br />"It was a targeted series of checks as a result of analysis which suggested the risk was most significant in India, Mauritius, Nepal, Brazil, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.<br />Once integrity checking is taken into account a student visa application has been refused," he said. <br /><br />Logan further said, "We are aware that there has been an effect across the board as a result of the global financial crisis," he said.<br /><br />"But we were also expecting that with greater and more stringent integrity checks, the student visa application cohort from a number of these countries will drop."<br /><br />Meanwhile, founder and director of International Education Consultants Australia, Kathryn Richardson, said adverse publicity of violent incidents involving foreign students in Australia cannot be ruled out as a factor.<br /><br />"Of course you would expect there would be some sort of response to that. I don't fear, at this stage, that it is something that will be in the long run a dramatic and constant change,"<br /><br />"But if the numbers fall off this year due partly to publicity or bad publicity, it probably wouldn't be surprising," Logan said.</p>
