Last updated: 8 August 2026. Data source: DHA Study Visa Statistics, monthly grant-rate data ingested into SVH's production dataset, current to 30 June 2026.
Bangladesh is one of the largest and fastest-growing sources of student visa applications to Australia — and one of the markets where the gap between a well-prepared application and a weak one costs the most. This article sets out what actually happened to Bangladeshi subclass 500 applications across the full 2025–26 financial year (July 2025 to June 2026), using the Department of Home Affairs' own monthly figures. Offshore and onshore applications are reported separately throughout, because merging them hides the single most important pattern in the data.
Method note: grant rates below are calculated as visas granted divided by total applications decided in the period, from DHA's published monthly study visa data. "Offshore" means the applicant lodged from outside Australia; "onshore" means they lodged while already in Australia on another visa. SVH never merges the two.
The full-year numbers
Subclass 500 outcomes for Bangladeshi citizens, FY2025–26 (July 2025 – June 2026):
| Sector | Lodged offshore | Lodged onshore |
|---|---|---|
| Higher Education | 57.0% granted (6,553 of 11,501) | 91.9% granted (2,848 of 3,100) |
| Vocational Education & Training (VET) | 9.2% granted (23 of 249) | 49.1% granted (107 of 218) |
| Independent ELICOS | 0 of 3 granted | 2 of 3 granted |
Three facts stand out.
Higher education offshore is a genuine contest. A 57% full-year grant rate means roughly 4 in 10 offshore applications were refused — and the visa application charge of A$2,500 is not refunded on refusal.
The onshore gap is enormous. Bangladeshi applicants already in Australia were granted at 91.9% in higher education — almost 35 percentage points above the offshore rate for the same sector. The pattern holds in VET (49.1% onshore against 9.2% offshore). Applicants lodging onshore have generally already passed one visa assessment and hold an Australian study or work history the Department can verify, so the two groups are not directly comparable — but the size of the gap is a fact worth knowing before choosing a pathway.
VET offshore was close to shut. Twenty-three grants from 249 decided applications across an entire year is a 9.2% rate. Whatever an agent or a marketing brochure suggests, the data says offshore VET applications from Bangladesh were overwhelmingly refused in FY2025–26.
The year did not end the way it began
Within the higher education offshore stream, the monthly rate moved sharply across the final quarter:
| Month (2026) | HE offshore grant rate | Applications decided |
|---|---|---|
| April | 63.2% | 835 |
| May | 38.4% | 960 |
| June | 23.1% | 1,273 |
Monthly rates move with the mix of cases the Department finalises in that month, so a single month is not a trend on its own — but a June rate of 23.1% on the year's largest monthly caseload is materially different from the full-year average, and applicants planning for the February 2027 intake should plan against recent months, not the annual figure.
Where Bangladesh sits in the evidence framework
SVH classifies Bangladesh at evidence level L3 — the tier requiring the fullest documentary evidence of funds and English. This tier is estimated by StudyVisaHub from the Department's document checklists and grant-rate patterns; the Department of Home Affairs does not publish evidence tiers. See the live visa data dashboard for how L3 compares across all 41 tracked countries.
What this means in practice
The data supports three general observations — none of which is advice about any individual application:
The Genuine Student requirement and financial-capacity evidence carry the weight in offshore decisions. Before committing the A$2,500 charge, applicants can estimate the funds they must evidence with SVH's financial capacity calculator and the total cost of applying with the visa cost calculator — both built from the Department's published amounts.
Sector choice matters more for Bangladeshi applicants than for most nationalities. The higher education route granted at six times the offshore rate of VET in FY2025–26.
For those already in Australia, the Onshore Students Hub covers the published rules on changing courses and providers — an area where the onshore data above shows a very different risk profile.
StudyVisaHub provides general information from published government data. It is not migration advice, and no figure here predicts the outcome of any individual application. For decisions about a visa application, consult a Registered Migration Agent or an Australian immigration lawyer.