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ALTHOUGH some overseas students with IT skills are spending months waiting for residency permits to be approved, regulations should not be loosened academics say.
In the wake of publicity over changing views in Federal Cabinet on skilled immigration, a number of overseas students expressed their dissatisfaction with the length of the visa approval process.
While declining to be identified, the students said they should be allowed to work while their applications were being reviewed - a process that could take six to eight months. But academics said existing rules were flexible enough.
Australia has agreements in place with countries including the UK and Germany, allowing quick approvals. Gazetted countries - including most South-East and North Asian countries, North America and most of Europe - are subject to streamlined procedures.
Fujitsu chairman Neville Roach, who chairs the Immigration Department's Business Advisory Panel and headed a review into the skilled immigration issue, said attitudes toward retaining - or "coverting" - overseas students with IT skills were gradually changing.
"In the old days, conversion was seen as something that was wrong," Mr Roach said "But overseas students are an ideal source."
Students who had experienced life here were easier to recruit than IT professionals unfamiliar with the country, he said.
University of New South Wales international office