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Where’s SA heading with its decreasing population growth? As South Australia’s residents continue to make interstate migration, migration experts have warned that the State’s population growth may undergo a free-fall enroute to zero. This means a crunch of economic problems that may worsen if changes to federal visa rules lead to a drop in the number of temporary and permanent migrants moving to SA. The State is continuously losing more people than that it is receiving. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, 6,400 more people moved interstate after their arrival in SA in 2015-16. You know the crisis is real when you hear the government’s announcement to strip SA of one of its House of Representatives seats at the next federal election due to low population growth.

New English language standards for international students International students will now be tested on their fluency of the English language under a new scheme that the Federal government is all set to introduce in 2018. The announcement was formally made by Education Minister Simon Birmingham last week. English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) will now have to formally assess students where they provide direct entry to a tertiary course, he said. What will change? At the moment, students can pass a course without proof and then start university studies. However, after the new standards are applied, the requirement will be extended for the first time beyond universities to vocational education and training courses. All ELICOS courses will have a minimum of 20 face-to-face contact hours per week and a maximum teacher-to-student ratio of 1:18.

Immigration no doubt is the major contributor to the population growth in Australia. Since 1970, the average number of children an Australian woman has is below two, and yet the country’s population has spurred by 70%. The number of newcomers continues to grow too, making Australia the country that admits more migrants than any big Western country. An article that appeared in The Economist recently talks about the pros and cons of this increasing immigration. While it mentions skills shortage, unemployment, increasing property prices, commuting and traffic issues, xenophobia and Pauline Hanson; it also quotes Australia’s Productivity Commission findings saying that there has been no evidence that migrants suppress wages or displace locals from jobs. Despite all these concerns, Australia continues to welcome the largest number of migrants, consistently holding on to the status of one of the most diverse societies in the world.

The process of reform of training packages will begin in earnest when a report is delivered to the federal government by the end of the year, Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills Karen Andrews has said. A Training Product Reform Joint Working Party is currently examining the structure of training packages. “It will determine whether there are alternative approaches to qualification design more suited to the changing nature of work into the future,” Ms. Andrews said. She said the working party will deliver a report by the end of the year on the case for change to the design of qualifications. “This is likely to be followed by a consultation process to seek feedback on any proposed changes,” Ms. Andrews said.

An 80-year-old woman and her autistic daughter, 50, now have until November 28 to continue their visa fight, after their calls for permanent residency on compassionate grounds were denied by the Department. The mother, Florence, and daughter, Sheryil, had applied for a PR but the application was cancelled due to Sheryil’s disability. Earlier, they had to leave the country on October 3, which was changed at the last minute and the two women were granted an extension on their visa. An online petition calling for both ladies to be granted permanent residency on compassionate grounds now has over 65,000 signatories.

After a drastic revision of the Australian Bureau of Statistics data on international education, the new figures suggest that education, Australia’s third largest export, is worth far more than what the previous numbers suggested. The annual education exports in 2016-17 have now been pushed up to $28 billion from $23.6 billion – a number that was already a record. This is a 19 per cent increase in value. Recent Immigration Department figures suggest that the number of international students in Australia is also booming with a record number of 685,000 students enrolled in courses in the first half of 2017. This is 15 per cent more than the previous year.

A man who issued seven vocational education and training (VET) statements of attainment despite not being authorised to do so has been convicted and fined $3000 in the ACT Magistrates Court, following an investigation by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). In November 2015 Paul Purcell delivered a housekeeping training course as a pre-employment program to jobseekers in Canberra. He later signed seven documents which purported to be VET statements of attainment. The Chief Commissioner of ASQA, Mark Paterson said the organisation conducted an investigation about the statements of attainment following a complaint. Mr Purcell pleaded guilty to all seven offences and was convicted and fined.

Universities are being urged to block websites that sell essays, identify cheating “hot spots” and consider publishing data on breaches of academic integrity. Australia’s higher education watchdog – Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency – has unveiled new guidelines to tackle the issue. TEQSA chief executive Anthony McClaran said that breaches of academic integrity had broad implications and this needed to stop right away. He said cheating put the reputation of Australia’s higher education system at risk and could endanger employers and the integrity of qualifications. A recent survey by University of South Australia associate professor Tracey Bretag, who also helped with the guidelines, found that six per cent of Australian students engaged in cheating; and that 68 percent of academics had encountered what they suspected was cheating.

In an attempt to consolidate its visa processes, Immigration New Zealand may close several of its offshore and onshore branch offices, a statement by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment said.  The reviewal process includes: Specialising visa processing by sector Reducing the number of processing sites Increasing the number of visas processed onshore Implementing a new leadership model for the department This may also include closing down of offices in Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Bangkok, Moscow, New Delhi, Pretoria, Shanghai, Auckland Central and Henderson

More Aussies taking to route to New Zealand In the last 12 months – 25,000 people have migrated from Australia to New Zealand. Migration experts say that New Zealand’s economy is powering ahead as unemployment rates in New Zealand are currently sitting at around 5 percent, that compares with about 5.5 percent in Australia.