The loud calls to provide thousands of international students with welfare has highlighted a key flaw in the system, namely that the financial requirements that students must meet in order to be granted a student visa are set far too low.
University of Sydney associate professor, Dr Anna Boucher, alluded to this problem over the weekend:
[Dr Boucher] said some people working in the sector believe the “asset testing” — or cost of living benchmark — for students looking to study in Australia was quite low.
“One argument is that they’re expected to be frugal, another is it’s unrealistic”…
“It allows a high number of students to gain admission, but then they’re really reliant on those part-time jobs…
According to a recent survey by Unions NSW, half of the migrant workers surveyed have lost their jobs, while a fifth have had their hours reduced.
Code:
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2020/04/international-student-financial-requirements-must-be-tightened/
