Every year, around 300,000 students from over 100 countries across the world are found heading to Australia for their studies. Australia is also home to five out of the 25 most livable cities across the world. Insofar as Nepalis students are concerned, the country had stood third after the United Kingdom and the United States in the list of most sought-after academic destinations just a few years ago. Now, however, it has climbed to the top spot. The fact that Australia boasts world-class academic institutions, part-time and post-study work facilities and a relatively safe environment insofar as the students’ investment is concerned are what have made it the most preferred place for higher study at present. Records from Nepal’s Department of Scholarship at the Ministry of Education show that of the around 15,000 No Objection Certification Letters have been issued for 64 countries in the last eight months of the current fiscal year, 8,959 have been for Australia alone.

The number of Nepali students opting for an Australia n education had soared in the year 2007-2009, but dropped significantly thereafter when the Australia n government issued stricter visa regulations for students. The adoption of the streamlined visa policy (SVP) two years ago, however, has raised figures once more.

It was in order to ensure that only genuine students are given opportunities to pursue higher education that the Australia n government had introduced the new visa policy for international students on March 24, 2012. Before the policy had come about, there were very different criteria for the selection of those from developed and under-developed countries. Now, however, all international students are treated alike during the selection process. What the SVP has done is allow the universities, rather than the Australia n High Commission, the right to make decisions regarding the