Reason 1: This year’s policy does not apply to those who plan to study then migrate now or in the future

By the time everyone graduates, it will be 2–3 years from now, and by then the state-nomination quotas and policies will be different from today’s. By then people may even have forgotten this one “darkest hour” of a year.

Some may ask: what if the quota by then is just as low as it is now? That brings us to the second reason

Reason 2: international students have always been the backbone of WA’s state nomination

History also tells us that quotas rise and fall, and that states loosening and tightening their policies is the norm.

But here’s the thing!

the international-student stream is usually the “backbone” of every state’s nomination program, and what’s more, unlike NSW, Victoria or Queensland, WA does not have the magnetic pull that draws skilled talent at a single call, so it is keen to retain as many locally graduated international students as possible.

How does it retain them? Through state-nomination policy.When quotas are generous, state-nomination policy gives top priority to the local international-student stream. When quotas are tight, policy protects the local international-student stream.

Here’s a very recent example: the pandemicat its most severe, WA had only 1,100 Subclass 190 and 340 Subclass 491 places, yet the local international-student stream remained open and continued to issue invitations, with most local international students able to vie for Subclass 190. As the saying goes, you look after your own “natural-born children” no matter how tough conditions get.

By the time we reached last financial year’s “good times,” it goes without saying — the graduate stream had the lowest requirements and invitation scores of all streams, and the widest range of occupations invited.

As of 30 August 2023, WA’s FY2023–24 international-graduate stream still follows the FY2022–23 policy

No matter how policies or quotas change, students who choose to stay in Australia after graduating have always been the “high-quality migrant group” the Australian government values most, and history has proven this will not change.

Want a more detailed look at WA’s policies across each stream this financial year? Get in touch with me~

Another student asked: you say international graduates have top priority, but what if there are too many “own children” and internal competition heats up? At this point I want to compare South Australia, which is similar to WA on most fronts.

In 2023, WA still has one of the smaller Chinese international-student populations among the seven states, at just 3,910.South Australia, whose quota is almost the same as WA’s, has nearly double WA’s number of Chinese international students at 6,870.

Objectively speaking, South Australia has four universities within the state while WA has five, and WA has even fewer Chinese international students. As a result, on many measures — from local employment pressure to the difficulty of securing state nomination — it is comparatively a little easier for graduates.