Australia tightens FTV rules

Australia is to close an immigration loophole that grants fast track permanent residency to non-IT professionals studying one-year IT degrees.

The call to close the loophole, which was growing increasingly popular with foreign students wanting to live and work in Australia, was made by the Australian Computer Society (ACS), an influential organisation that provides skills advice to the Government.

The ACS has already been permitted by the Government to operate an accreditation system whereby foreign students and workers seeking to migrate to Australia must fulfil its own criteria before being allowed to apply to the Department of Immigration for a visa.

Mr Hogg, President of the ACS, said the changes were designed to alleviate unemployment and "ensure people who are out of work in Australia have as good a chance as anyone else to find a job."

According to the Australian press, universities are expected to work around the new guidelines by increasing the length of a one-year postgraduate IT degree by six months.

Mr Hogg admitted the changes to the immigration system were more likely to "slow the process" of imported labour taking jobs rather than reducing the number of skilled immigrants coming in.

Bob Kinnaird, a labour market analyst, showed the number of foreign students studying IT courses at Australian universities increased by 7,800 between 2000-2001 in his 'Case for an Overhaul' paper, published in July.

This number has risen to 15,000 for 2002, with the ACS estimating 70 per cent of those applying for IT skill certification will succeed.

Mr Kinnaird said there was a "serious over-supply" of computer science graduates.

He added: "It's going to provide yet another avenue for the universities to make money from full-fee-paying students at the expense of local students and they'll all end up competing in the labour market."

The new rules will come into force on 1 October.

Other conditions to be incorporated into Australian immigration regulations include a series of indicators to determine whether a foreign worker is qualified to take an Australian IT job.

The indicators apply specifically to: Information Technology Managers; Systems Managers; Systems Designers; Software Designers; Applications & Analyst Programmers; Systems Programmers; Computer Systems Auditors and Computing Professionals.