International education is Australia’s largest services export, .
In a bid to attract international students back and to stimulate the sector’s recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia, Canada, and the UK are looking into ways to enhance flexibility and increase support around post-study work visas.
This includes permitting online study and/or offshore time due to COVID-19, to be counted towards post-study work visas.
Since the introduction of the revised post-study work rights policy for international students in 2013, the 485 visa has made Australia an increasingly attractive education destination for international students.
"A qualidade de vida da Austrália, o sistema educacional, isso tudo atrai o brasileiro,” diz o embaixador. Source: AAP Image/Julian Smith
The top five countries of origin for 485 visa holders in Australia
A 2018-19 Deakin University of over 1150 international graduates found that 76 per cent mentioned the 485 visa as an important factor in their decision to choose Australia as their study destination.
However, the highlights that a gap between policy intention, international students’ expectations and the reality of the host labour market is hampering the effectiveness of the 485 visa policy for some students.
Professor Ly Tran who contributed to the Deakin University survey. Source: Ly Tran
Employers may hesitate to recruit visa 485 holders
Duong Hoang, a graduate in computer science, began looking for a job when he was granted a temporary graduate visa to stay in Australia for two years after his graduation.
But after many attempts, he could not secure a foothold in the Australian labour market.
“First I tried to search for a job through websites like Seek or Career but then I figured out that the jobs over there have pretty high expectations and it’s not suitable for me, so I changed my strategy and looked for jobs on Gumtree, which are a lower level, and of course [they would have] a lower salary,” Duong told the researchers of the recent survey on post-study work rights in Australia.
This visa (subclass 485) allows international graduates of an Australian institution to stay in Australia for two to four years after completion to gain work experience.
The Deakin study found that Australian employers “Either prefer international graduates with a permanent residency visa than those on the temporary graduate visa or are unclear about what the latter entails”.
It also found that employers may hesitate to recruit international students and graduates because of misconceptions about the complexity of the paperwork involved, or the misapprehension that they have to act as sponsors.
Others see international graduates as an "insecure" labour source and have concerns around the temporariness of the 485 visa, which they may see as a waste of training resources, a lack of commitment, or even a lack of trustworthiness for employers.
The study also stated that there is a risk that Australia misses a “potential pool of skilled transient workforce and maximise its potential benefits if the structural barriers around the temporary graduate visa and international graduates’ access to the Australian labour market persist”.
As Duong explained, many international students who stay in Australia on a 485 visa have to turn to alternative job search channels such as Gumtree to look for part-time or casual jobs.
For many 485 visa holders who may have considerable years of professional experience in their field, accepting jobs on Gumtree means compromising their career goals, and results in under-employment, or a backwards career move.
Dr Huong Phan from Deakin University. Source: Huong Phan
How to overcome the barriers of the 485 visa?
Indeed, job ads, especially from the public sector, often contain notices such as ‘Australian permanent residency or citizenship required’ or ‘To be eligible to apply, you must be an Australian citizen or a permanent resident’.
Such requirements exclude international graduates who studied in Australian universities and have unrestricted work rights in Australia but are non-citizens or non-permanent residents.
In response, many 485 visa holders attempt to explicitly and tactically explain their work rights to prospective employers in their applications through wording such as ‘I have full legal rights to work in Australia’ or ‘My visa has non-restricting work rights in Australia’ while avoiding simply saying ‘I am on a temporary graduate visa’.
Others take up more in-demand courses or reskilling.
Some find ways to improve their professional skills or resort to undertaking internships and expanding their professional networks; a few create jobs for themselves and others.
A showed of the of 30,952 visa holders who transitioned to other visas in the fiscal year 2018-19, 45.3 per cent became skilled migrants and 34.9 per cent went back to international student status.
Better coordination between the government, professional organisations and universities is needed to inform employers of the nature of the 485 visa and promote it as a viable employment option to the wider community and prospective employers.
It is critical for the government to work with universities to help international students develop a continuing portfolio from when they start university through to the temporary graduate visa stage.
To give international graduates a fairer chance to find work in their field, more needs to be done to remove structural barriers, such as discriminatory statements in job ads that favour only those with citizenship and permanent residency.
Ly Tran is a professor in the School of Education, Deakin University and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow.
Dr Huong Phan graduated with a degree in Education from Deakin University. Her dissertation on the internationalisation of the undergraduate curriculum in Australia and Vietnam was awarded by the Australian International Education Association in 2020.
“Better coordination between the government, professional organisations and universities is needed to inform employers of the nature of the 485 visa and promote it as a viable employment option to the wider community and prospective employers”
