Why fewer Indian students are heading to Australia

Terming the attacks on Indian students in his country as "unfortunate", Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen on Wednesday said that the incidents were one of the reasons behind the decline in requests for student visas from India.

"Those incidents (attacks of Indian students) were unfortunate," he told a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry meeting in New Delhi.

The Australian minister said there was a sharp decline in requests for student visas from India after the attack incidents but the number of requests is again marking an upward trend in the recent past.

"Now analysis shows that Indian students are less likely to be attacked there," Bowen told the gathering.

He said there were also other reasons like the high cost of Australian dollar which resulted in decline in request for student visas from India.

Bowen said a number of steps have been taken by his country to encourage students from across the world, including India, to study in Australia.

Under its immigration policy, Australia will allow skilled workers to work there, he said, adding that his country would prefer to have employee-sponsored work force but would allow independent people also to settle there.

The Australian Minister said changes have been made recently in the student visa programme after a review.

He said as per the data of 2011-12, India was the largest source of permanent migrants to Australia ahead of both the UK and China.