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Getting an Australian student visa is becoming difficult for Indians
31 Jul 2026

Australia has drastically cut down on student visa approvals, with a 75% decline in grants to Indian applicants in June 2026 from the previous year.

The data was revealed by Times Higher Education based on statistics from the Department of Home Affairs.

The overall higher education visa approvals also fell by 16% in 2025-26 despite applications staying above pre-pandemic levels.

Around 3% drop in offshore student visa applications
Application drop

The financial year also witnessed a 3% drop in offshore student visa applications.

This decline was mainly due to a 26% fall in applications from China, Australia's top source of international students.

Other countries like India, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka also contributed to this decline with smaller decreases in their application numbers.

Nepal, Bangladesh see increase in demand
Rising demand

Interestingly, Nepal and Bangladesh were the only major source markets to see an increase in demand.

Applications from these countries rose by 58% and 37%, respectively.

However, despite this increase, visa approvals still fell across all six of Australia's biggest student source countries as per the Times Higher Education's report.

Significant drop in visa grants
Approval rates

The most significant drop in visa grants came in June 2026 when Australia issued less than half as many offshore higher education visas as it did a year ago.

Visa grants to Indian applicants fell by 75% year-on-year during this period.

Approvals for Bangladesh and Nepal also witnessed a sharp decline of 89% and 94%, respectively, indicating that authorities are slowing processing and rejecting more applications from South Asian countries.