// Willy Kwong, general manager of expo organiser AAS Education Consultancy, said daily inquiries about Australia’s permanent residency visa streams for the city’s residents had increased by nearly a third since details of the scheme were announced. “We held two webinars to illustrate the pathway in November each with a quota of 150, and they were full after a few hours,” Kwong said.
Residents in their 30s and 40s were showing an interest in pursuing advanced studies in Australia, which was previously not a popular option for master’s degrees, with the goal of settling down there, he noted. “We have helped a 47-year-old applicant secure a study permit to take a public health course and a 42-year-old mother who was originally applying for a guardian visa to accompany her nine-year-old daughter switch to a student visa leading up to permanent residency after the policy was announced in October,” Kwong said.
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane require graduates to stay at least four years before becoming eligible for permanent residency, while cities such as Perth and Adelaide require three years. Kwong said Perth was now especially popular among middle-aged Hongkongers interested in postgraduate studies as their children could go to school for free, while the cost in Sydney and Melbourne ranged from HKD$6,000 (US$770) to HK$10,000 a year. Residents were also choosing Australia over Britain due to the better weather, closer proximity and less drastic time zone differences, he added. Kwong said he noticed most of the students heading overseas had studied in schools operating under the direct subsidy scheme, which ties the funding to the number of pupils. As the Post previously reported, many of those schools have suffered a drop in enrolment.//
【查詢澳洲碩士課程人數持續上升】
英國及澳洲碩士課程一向受港人喜愛，可為 CV 增值及提升個人競爭力。隨著澳洲公佈港人移民政策的詳情後，有意澳洲讀書移民的人數持續上升，查詢澳洲 PR 詳情增加了近三分之一，不少人轉向查詢澳洲碩士課程，為移民澳洲鋪路。澳洲畢業生在澳洲居住 3 或 4 年及符合規例要求，便可以申請 PR*。
原文：SCMP
* 有內容一切以澳洲政府公佈為準