Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has said the government "won't tolerate" any education and migration scam affecting foreign students, after such a scam was exposed by an undercover Indian reporter who was assaulted over the weekend.

Speaking from Singapore on the ABC's Australia Network, Smith said: "Of course it's very concerning... On the migration front, when we were in opposition we did express significant concerns about the regulation of migration agents, and as a consequence of that we've recently seen a migration regulatory authority come into existence to regulate that industry better.