Another report has emerged on how private ghost colleges providing fake diplomas are targeting international students from India:
In the recent past, Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) sector has been rocked with scandals that in worst cases have led to arrests, fraud and have unearthed the reality of ‘ghost colleges’ exploiting vulnerable international students.
Arguably one of the most infamous cases which continue to make headlines even today is that of Baljit “Bobby” Singh, an Indian-origin businessman who was sentenced to six years in 2018, for running a $2m private vocational training college scam…
Chandigarh-based education agent Avtar Gill said Indian students are emerging as one of the main target groups of such dodgy operators, as Indians are the second-largest source of student intake in Australia.
“Indian students are being exploited to the hilt. Even in Bobby Singh’s case, most of the affected students were from India, out of which a large proportion was from Punjab”…
Mr Gill, however, believes that the common thread behind the rampant rorting is the increased privatisation of the sector.
“To be honest privatisation does not suit the VET sector. At the very least, the government must ensure the gaps in the system are sealed and that is only possible when they start conducting repeated physical raids on the premises of such private to ensure they are not operating as ghost colleges.
“Otherwise, scammers like Mr Singh would continue to ruin the future of students,” he added.
We have been here before. A decade ago, Australia experienced a massive boom in Indian international students enrolled in VET:
As reported at the time, many of these enrolments were dodgy and undertaken for the express purpose to achieve easy Australian working rights and permanent residency:
In 2002 there was just over 11,000 Indian students in Australia, and by 2005 this number had grown to over 27,000… However, by last year enrolments had grown even more rapidly up to nearly 100,000 students, and most of the growth was in private vocational colleges where enrolments of Indian students increased at a startling rate, from 2,600 to 47,400 in three years.
…there are low quality providers who cater almost exclusively to international students seeking fast and easy qualifications to support migration applications. By last year, 14,400 Indian students were studying in private colleges in programs grouped under the ‘food, hospitality and personal services’ classification, accounting more than a quarter of all students in these programs.
For several years many in the Australian international education industry have been warning that the rapid growth of private colleges providers focused on migration pathway programs posed serious threats…
The regulator of the higher education industry – the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) – recently warned that criminals using “ghost colleges” offering “fake vocational training programs” have been behind the surge in bridging visa applications to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The rorting helps to explain why Australia’s Department of Home Affairs recently designated Indian international students as “high risk”, meaning they must now demonstrate bonafide English-language proficiency and prove adequate financial resources before being issued a student visa.
