Australia not so safe for students after all

New instances of private colleges threatening Indians with deportation for refusing to pay additional fees have emerged

Despite professions of good intention and claims of effective action by its government, Australia's reputation as a safe destination for international students has been further damaged with the surfacing yesterday of fresh allegations of corruption by private college operators.

New claims have now emerged of students attending so-called private Australian colleges being tricked and ripped off, including some being threatened with deportation for refusing to pay additional fees.

The new allegations have come soon after Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's visit to India last weekend to smoothen ruffled feathers and restore confidence in Australia's international student sector which is estimated to be worth $15 billion a year.

Treasurer Wayne Swann, who is currently in India, is the third Australian minister to visit India after Gillard and Trade Minister Simon Crean after a series of assaults on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney that have damaged bilateral relations. Prime minister Kevin Rudd is scheduled to visit later in the year.

After meeting prime minister Manmohan Singh and Human Resources minister Kapil Sibal, Gillard said: "They accepted as representatives of the Indian government that Australia had appropriately responded to support Indian students when they're in this country."

Instances have come to light of colleges threatening to tear up student's confirmation of enrollment, which is required for securing visas, if they didn't cough up additional fees.

One student complained he was attending classes but being marked as absent in an attempt to extract more money for tuition.

"Even though I was attending classes I was being marked absent by staff so I then asked for a letter of release but they refused to give me one unless I paid an advance semester fee of $4.200," he said, adding, "I was then asked to pay more.

"I was told I was being reported to immigration."

Robert Palmer, the executive director of Overseas Students Support Network Australia is on record as saying he had received serious complaints from at least 1,500 students since the start of this year.

He cited instances of students being commonly tricked and ripped off, with some being placed in courses they did not enrol for and threatened with deportation if they did not agree to pay extra money or pay in advance.
"We've had a student come that was supposed to be enrolled in a nursing course turn up at the college ... placed in a hairdressing course instead."

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Meanwhile Australian Treasurer Wayne Swann has assured India of Australia's support in its efforts to assume a more meaningful role in world affairs, including a seat on the United Nations Security Council as well as vote-weighting within the international Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Calling on the two nations to work together, Swann said in New Delhi on Monday that Australia was increasingly aligning diplomatically with the emerging Asian economic giant "for very good policy reasons" and that it "hoped India would be one of our biggest future customers and suppliers".

(With inputs from The Australian).