China has issued a directive requiring all students attending overseas universities online to return to campus for in-person study. The announcement came as a surprise to Karen Zhang.
The big news this week: China’s Ministry of Education Service Centre for Overseas Students has officially announced that overseas qualifications obtained through remote learning from the 2023 spring semester onwards will no longer be eligible for certification — prompting tens of thousands of Chinese students to rush back to Australia.
Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane are consistently ranked among the world’s top ten most liveable cities. Australia has 43 universities, several of which — including the University of Sydney, UNSW Sydney, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the University of Queensland — are perennial fixtures in the global top 100. Universities such as the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Wollongong and RMIT University are also regular top-200 performers, known for their practical, hands-on programmes and popular with international students.
China’s Ministry of Education has officially announced major news: students who continue taking online classes in the first half of this year will be unable to have their qualifications recognised! Yes — this applies to the semester starting right now (the autumn semester in the Southern Hemisphere, the spring semester in the Northern Hemisphere). This means that many students who have been taking online classes from within China, or who planned to return home with just one subject left, may now need to urgently apply for a student visa
1. Victoria: Two Invitation Rounds in January — Engineering & IT at 80–85 Points Secure Subclass 190! 2. NSW Subclass 190 Follows Victoria — Broader Invitations, Accounting at 85! 3. Canberra Drops Points for IT and Other Occupations; Queensland Opens Priority Processing! 4. Parent Visa Alert: Sponsoring One Parent Then the Other via Partner Visa May Not Save Money 5. Weekly Grant, Invitation, Skills Assessment & Citizenship Processing Update
Western Sydney University 2023 programme updates University of Sydney to revise IT postgraduate programmes for 2024 UNSW International Student Welcome Centre Chinese airlines resuming flights to Australia 2023 international student scholarships: overview across major universities Anti-cheating alert: ChatGPT banned in these schools
When it comes to skilled migration, the single most important issue is the skills assessment (Skills Assessment). Without a skills assessment, even an IELTS score of 9 in every band is useless.
Make sure you have your OFFER letter, COE, passport, transcripts, visa grant letter, and all other important documents ready — and double-check your departure time so you don’t miss your flight. There are currently no direct international flights to Canberra, so everyone returning will need to fly into Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane first and then connect onward. Public transport in Australia isn’t as convenient as in major Chinese cities, and most people fly into Sydney.
Victoria issued its second round of ROI invitations for January 2023 today — previously, only one round per month was standard. Canberra, having received a larger quota at the end of last year, is gradually releasing more invitations, and as a result the required scores are beginning to fall. The IT and Engineering scores dropped significantly in the round on 23 January.
Air China, China Southern Airlines, and China Eastern Airlines have all recently announced increased flights to Australia. Air China led the way from 10 January, announcing plans to operate three flights per week between Sydney and Melbourne and Beijing from early February.
