Australian universities have been urged to tread carefully in enlisting students from South Asia’s latest recruitment hotspot, as institutions elsewhere pull back.
Bangladesh, which has not featured within Australia’s 20 top student source markets for most of the past two decades, has produced the seventh highest tally of overseas enrolments this year after commencements more than quadrupled since pre-pandemic times.
Bangladeshi students are concentrated in higher education, where it is now the fifth most prominent source country, according to the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA). It is the fourth top market in New South Wales, third in the Northern Territory and second in Tasmania.
IEAA chief executive Phil Honeywood said Australian universities appeared to have overcome a blind spot about Bangladesh in their search for promising recruitment options, amid pressure to diversify their mix of overseas students.
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Success rates for higher education students seeking visas from Bangladesh have averaged 90 per cent for the past decade and stand at 99 per cent this year – the best of any top-10 market. Lat month the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) last month elevated Bangladesh’s immigration risk rating to the optimum level 1, up from moderate risk level 2.
However, Charles Sturt University pro vice-chancellor Mike Ferguson said there were “very significant concerns” with Bangladeshi students, who were “highly represented in course hopping”, according to anecdotal accounts. “[It] seems…that there’s very high grant rates for that cohort, but not necessarily great onshore compliance.”
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Ferguson, a former director of international education policy at the department, said the noncompliance was not reflected in the metrics used to assess risk ratings because the DHA was not cancelling the visas of students who switched institutions prematurely.
But the country’s risk rating could deteriorate if Bangladeshi students overstay their visas or apply for asylum in significant numbers, or if officials start rejecting a higher share of their visa applications. This would also jeopardise the institutional risk ratings of the universities that first admitted the students – including students who subsequently transferred to cheaper colleges.
Ferguson said some UK universities were no longer accepting Bangladeshi students for fear of undermining their standing with the UK Home Office – a factor contributing to the enrolment spike in Australia.
The University of Sunderland, Coventry University and London Metropolitan University have indefinitely suspended student recruitment from Bangladesh, according to . London Met deputy vice-chancellor Gary Davies reportedly?blamed the action on an “uptick” in student visa refusals.
“We’ve seen more refusals than we’re comfortable with and [most] come from Bangladesh,” he told PIE News. “This matches UKVI [UK Visas and Immigration] briefings indicating that they see Bangladesh as a high-risk region.”
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Nishat Promi, a Bangladesh-based educational counsellor, said UK universities had experienced a “a surge in applications” from Bangladeshi students, with many reportedly applying for asylum or switching to other visa categories upon arrival. She said about 70 per cent of new applicants were being summoned for embassy interviews, and many proved incapable of explaining their choice of university or course.
“More universities may follow, as the UK Home Office is tightening its student visa policies,” Promi on LinkedIn. “Let’s prepare smartly, stay informed and apply ethically.”
Bangladesh is among the top five nationalities of people claiming asylum in the UK. While official do not list asylum bids by both nationality and visa type, the overall caseload rose by 14 per cent to over 110,000 in the year ending June 2025, with students comprising 36 per cent. The spike prompted the UK Home Office to text tens of thousands of foreign students to warn them against overstaying their visas.
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As the world’s eighth most populous country with a substantial English-speaking base, Bangladesh is a natural recruitment ground for universities in both the UK and Australia. However, experience from nearby Nepal illustrates the potential risks for educational administrators.
The Himalayan nation, which ranked outside Australia’s 20 top source markets in 2006, rose to sixth?just two years later. But an immigration department crackdown, prompted by claims of doctored visa applications from people seeking residency rather than study, precipitated a 40 per cent decline in enrolments between 2009 and 2012.
Sydney-based education agent Ravi Lochan Singh said he was “confused” by immigration authorities’ newfound approach to Bangladesh and neighbours Nepal and Sri Lanka, all of which have been granted improved risk ratings.
“What has happened that these countries are less risky now?” Singh . “Hasn’t Nepal followed Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in political turmoil, where the economy has suffered?”
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