Australia will relax university entry and visa requirements to attract more foreign students to the country. It hopes to boost its tertiary education sector, which has seen a drop in foreign students numbers recently due to strict visa requirements and a strong Australian dollar.One of the more significant changes is the offer of a 2 to 4-year work right to students who graduate from Australian universities.
Currently, foreign students who wish to work in Australia after completing their studies need to apply for a subclass 458 visa, which will only be granted if they are filling positions that are experiencing manpower shortage.
41 recommendations were made in the Strategic Review of the Student Visa Program 2011 report, presented by Hon Ao Michael Knight, who led a review on the university sector. The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reported that the government has accepted most of the recommendations, which will be implemented between October 2011 and mid-2012.
In terms of content, the SMH online report lacks clear explanation of important details such as when the changes would take place and how the changes would affect current students. The report leaves readers feeling unclear about the changes. Could this be the result of increasing time pressures in online news production? Or, is it a deliberate attempt by the newspapers to entice more people to continue paying for the hardcopy, which provides much more details and analysis?
In terms of design, the SMH webpage offers great browsing aids. The SMH logo and breadcrumbs at the top left hand corner of the page tell users where they are. The local navigation bar at the top of the page and the site wide navigation bar at bottom, help users identify where they can go within the section and the entire site. A great overview of the major content of the site is also available via the site map link at the end of the page.
While content is largely organised by topics, the website also offers a list of news stories by popularity. And if users cannot find the content they are looking for, they can use the search function at the top right corner of the page, which offers two search zones; within the SMH site or on the World Wide Web. To facilitate searches, results can be sorted according to relevance and chronology of posting as well.
Clearly, this changes is the results of the rapid drop of incoming international students. While the Australian currency is keeping high and US dolar is getting low, the choice that international students will make is clear. Also, as I remember, the change will apply to student who will start their study from next year...So I guess I'll have to apply the TR first ^0^
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