2.2 The Tribunal's decision
6 On 22 November 2016, the appellant applied for review of the delegate's decision by the Tribunal. The Tribunal wrote to the appellant on 19 December 2007 inviting him to attend a hearing. On 30 January 2018, after holding a hearing at which the appellant appeared to give evidence and present arguments, the Tribunal affirmed the decision under review.
7 The criteria for a Subclass 500 (Student) visa (which include Student (Temporary) (Class TU) visa) are set out in Part 500 of Schedule 2 to the Regulations. As the Tribunal found, the issue was whether the appellant satisfied the primary criteria for the grant of the visa in clauses 500.211 to 500.218. The Tribunal was satisfied that the appellant was enrolled in a course of study at the time of its decision, namely, a Diploma of Business and Advanced Diploma of Business, and therefore that clause 500.211 was met (Tribunal reasons at [13]). The decision turned on whether the criterion in clause 500.212 was met which is set out above at [2]. In this regard the Tribunal acknowledged at [15] that Direction Number 69 - Assessing the Genuine Temporary Entrant Criterion for Student Visa and Student Guardian Visa Applications (Direction 69) required the Tribunal to have regard to a number of specified factors including:
• the applicant's circumstances in their home country, potential circumstances in Australia, and the value of the course to the applicant's future;
• the applicant's immigration history, including previous applications for an Australian visa or for visas to other countries, and previous travel to Australia or other countries;
• …
• any other relevant information provided by the applicant, or information otherwise available to the decision-maker, including information that may be either beneficial or unfavourable to the applicant.
8 The Tribunal explained that the Direction indicates that the factors specified should not be used as a checklist but rather are intended to guide decision-makers when considering an applicant's circumstances as a whole, in reaching a finding about whether the applicant satisfies the genuine temporary entrant criterion (Tribunal reasons at [16]).
9 The Tribunal implicitly accepted the applicant's claim in his visa application that he holds a Bachelor of Information Technology from a university in India which he said was awarded before he came to Australia. The applicant claimed that he came to Australia wanting to study an MBA so that he could improve his career prospects in India. While the appellant said that he would still like to study for an MBA, he said that it was too expensive and he could not afford it and that this was the reason why he was enrolled in a diploma level course (Tribunal reasons at [18]).
10 The Tribunal found with respect to the appellant's academic progress that:
21. The applicant is not made any academic progress since arriving in Australia in 2014. He started a Master of Information Systems into 2014 which was a logical progression from the Bachelor of Information Technology he had been awarded in India. The Masters course was, however, cancelled due to non-payment of fees, in 2015. The applicant said he then commenced a Diploma of Management in July 2015, but did not finish this course either, because of failure to commence the first term in 2016 due to financial problems. He said he did not study from November 2015 to July 2016, which the Tribunal notes is a significant eight month gap in his studies, because he said he was depressed due to his financial situation. He then applied for a Masters of Business Administration in 2016, but the offer of enrolment for that course lapsed.
22. The applicant has provided the tribunal with current CEO's indicating he is intending to study a package of Diploma/Advanced Diploma of Business from January 2018 to January 2020 and that classes commenced the week before the Tribunal hearing.
23. In the applicant's visa application, he states that he has "… gained substantial knowledge through my unfortunate failures from 2014 till date (29 August 2016) and in spite of all these failures I am determined to fight back again from scratch to repair my academics…" The applicant has not, on the evidence, repaired his academics. From August 2016 to the time of this decision, the applicant has not achieved any academic success. For part of the time he did not study at all, and then did not commence a Masters degree he was enrolled in in [sic] 2016. In addition, he had previously been enrolled in a Diploma of Management in 2015, which he did not finish, and is now enrolled in a Diploma of Business, which he says he commenced the week before the hearing.
11 The Tribunal accepted that the appellant has had financial problems but considered that the fact that he was studying the Diploma/Advanced Diploma primarily because it is less expensive "does not strongly indicate he is a genuine temporary entrant as it is extending his time onshore to study a course that the Tribunal cannot see will add much value to his future employment prospects" (Tribunal reasons at [24]). Nor, given that the appellant had not completed any courses since arriving as a student in 2014, was the Tribunal confident that he would complete the Diploma of Business in which he was then enrolled (Tribunal reasons at [25]).
12 In reaching the view that the appellant did not satisfy the genuine temporary entrant criterion, the Tribunal placed "significant weight" on the appellant's lack of academic progress in more than three and a half years, including "a significant eight month gap where he was not studying at all." (Tribunal reasons at [26]). It also found that if the appellant completed the courses in which he was currently enrolled, he would have been in Australia for five and a half years but gained only qualifications at the Diploma and Advanced Diploma level within a period of two years, being qualifications at a lower academic level than those gained earlier in India (Tribunal reasons at [26]).
13 The Tribunal noted that the appellant had provided no documentary evidence about his circumstances in his home country although he had returned to India twice for periods of a month and three weeks respectively. The Tribunal found that it was not satisfied that the appellant has sufficient ties to his home country which would motivate him to return there having regard among other things to the fact that he has no dependent relatives, is unmarried and has no children. The Tribunal found that "[t]his, together with his poor academic record over a period of three and a half years, causes the Tribunal to have significant concern about whether the applicant is a genuine temporary entrant, as he claims to be, or whether he is enrolling in courses to maintain residence in Australia" (Tribunal reasons at [29]). The Tribunal also took into account that the appellant, who had worked previously in India as an assistant developer in web designing, had not provided any information indicating that his current courses of study would increase his career or salary prospects in India and the Tribunal was not satisfied that they will (Tribunal reasons at [29]).
14 Given these matters, the Tribunal was not satisfied that the appellant genuinely intended to stay in Australia temporarily and considered that he is continuing to enrol in lower level courses in Australia for the primary purpose of maintaining residence. As such, the Tribunal found that the appellant does not meet clause 500.212(a) and was not therefore satisfied that he is a genuine applicant for entry and stay as a student as required by clause 500.212.