Why some Australian universities are restricting applications from Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat

A student in Ludhiana or Ahmedabad can hold strong marks, genuine savings and a clear study plan, and still find that some Australian universities will not open the application, or will demand far more proof than a classmate from Kerala or Karnataka. The reason often has less to do with that student and more to do with a postcode.

Since the run of student visa reforms that began in 2023, several Australian universities have placed regional restrictions or extra scrutiny on applicants from a handful of Indian states, most often Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat, and at times Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir. The trigger is a steep rise in visa refusals from these regions and official worry about non-genuine applications.

What is actually happening

The first public signs came in early 2023. Edith Cowan University in Perth told migration agents in February 2023 that it was suspending undergraduate enrolments from Punjab and Haryana. Around the same time, Torrens University said it would consider only very strong applications from Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab, and the University of Wollongong tightened its checks on applicants from several states. Victoria University was reported to have limited applications from eight Indian states, although it later said it had never banned or restricted students by region. Deakin University and Southern Cross University were also named in the coverage.

Many of these measures were described at the time as temporary. Federation University paused enrolments from five Indian states in May 2023 and resumed them on 18 September 2023. What has proved more lasting is the caution among education agents, some of whom now quietly decline to lodge applications from these states rather than risk a refusal.

The government has not banned anyone

Here care matters. The Australian government has repeatedly said it does not ban or restrict students by Indian state. In April 2025 the Australian High Commission called the claim that applications from specific states were being banned or restricted incorrect. India’s Ministry of External Affairs noted that visa decisions sit within each country’s sovereign authority.

The restrictions, where they exist, are choices by individual universities and agents, not a national policy. Home Affairs assesses every application on its merits. The confusion arises because university caution and government scrutiny push in the same direction at the same time.

The refusal numbers behind the caution

The data explain the nervousness. Grant rates for Indian student visas fell from close to 90 per cent in 2020-21 to around 65 per cent by 2024-25. Home Affairs has estimated that roughly one in four applications from India were considered fraudulent or non-genuine.

The squeeze has since tightened. Business Standard, citing Home Affairs data, reported that about 40 per cent of Indian applications were refused in early 2026, with the overall refusal rate for international university student visas reaching 32.5 per cent in February 2026, the highest in two decades. Refusal rates ran higher again for Nepal at 60.2 per cent and Bangladesh at 47.2 per cent, and far lower for China at about 3 per cent. India was moved from Evidence Level 2 to Evidence Level 3, the highest-risk processing category.

The rules that changed the incentives

Two policy shifts reset the field. On 23 March 2024 the Genuine Student requirement replaced the older Genuine Temporary Entrant test, asking applicants to show that study is their primary purpose while accepting that many may later seek skilled migration.

The second shift was about processing speed. Ministerial Direction 107, issued on 14 December 2023, sorted universities into risk tiers, with the weighting driven heavily by fraud-related refusals and visa cancellations. A university’s tier affected how quickly its offshore visas were processed, which gave institutions a direct reason to avoid cohorts with high refusal rates. It was replaced by Ministerial Direction 111 in December 2024, which linked fast processing to enrolment caps instead, and was adjusted again for 2026. Cost added pressure too, with the student visa application charge rising to A$2,500 from 1 July 2026, up from A$2,000 a year earlier, and the Temporary Graduate visa charge reaching A$5,750 on the same date, the second increase to that charge in 2026 after an earlier rise to A$4,600.

What it means for genuine students

The blunt effect is that an honest, capable student from Punjab, Haryana or Gujarat can carry the cost of other people’s fraud. They may face extra documentation, slower decisions, higher upfront money tests, or an agent who simply will not take the file.

Assistant Minister for International Education Julian Hill, speaking in December 2025, welcomed the near 178,000 Indian students in Australia, up about 31 per cent on 2024, while acknowledging that fake or unverifiable documents from certain regions were pushing rejection rates higher. He drew a line between agents who give proper advice and those chasing fees.

Community and sector reaction

Sector voices are split. Phil Honeywood of the International Education Association of Australia has pointed to a concentration of low-quality applications from a few northern states. The Association of Australian Education Representatives in India has warned that labelling a whole region as unwelcome sends a damaging message and sweeps up genuine students with the rest. Migration agents describe applicants who misstate finances or intentions, while families in affected states describe being turned away before they can even apply.

The government’s line on integrity is firm. In April 2026, Julian Hill said decisions are made on the merits of each application and that the government would not back off strong integrity measures to weed out non-genuine students. Recruiters, meanwhile, note that students are increasingly weighing Germany, France and Italy, where fees are lower.

The real cost

Fraud in the system is real, and a country is entitled to protect its borders. Yet geography is a crude filter. A refusal rate is a statistic about a group; a rejected application is one person with a school record, a loan and a plan. When scrutiny hardens into a de facto postcode test, the students most likely to be discouraged are often the honest ones who followed every rule, because they have the most to lose from a refusal on their file. The fairer answer runs through better verification of documents and agents rather than through the map. These reforms will be judged on whether they can catch the cheats without quietly turning away the genuine student from Ludhiana who did everything right.

Related reading: Australia’s 295,000 student cap and the skilled migration points test.