Australian Student Visa Program not “Sufficiently robust.”

A new release from the Australian National Audit Office has revealed that there are not sufficient systems in place to ensure that the Australian Student Visa program is monitored and controlled. It said that the process is not “sufficiently robust.”

The Audit Office found that the DIAC is “struggling to cope” with the number of people involved in the Students Visa Australia Program.

By March last year there was a backlog of 350,000 non-compliance notices from schools and universities where students have not started, attended or finished a course. By March this year the number of students visa with non-compliance notices had reduced to 124,000.

Lead Auditor-General Ian McPhee said “The rapid growth of the program, with over 400,000 overseas students living in Australia in 2009-10, places significant pressure on DIAC’s compliance functions.”

“While the large number of the NCNs (non-compliance notices) in the backlog are trivial and carry no compliance implications, there are potentially serious cases of student non-compliance ‘hidden’ within the backlog, particularly in the category of ‘non-commencement of course’.

This means that Australian Student Visas have been obtained with no intention of the named visa holder enrolling on the course, making their presence in Australia illegal.

“The backlog has prevented these cases from being identified and dealt with.” Mr McPhee said

Source   http://www.embraceaustralia.com/australian-student-visa-program-not-sufficiently-robust-9586.htm