Thirteen years ago, GlobalHigherEd reported that Australia was being inundated with sham private vocational ‘ghost colleges’ catering to fake South Asian students seeking to work and live in Australia:
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…
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…
Fast forward to today, and the number of students from South Asia has ballooned, with many studying at private colleges of questionable repute:
After years of inaction, the federal government is finally cracking down on ghost colleges.
“Some 150 dormant providers have been closed down, while 140 have been told to resume “quality training””, according to SBS News.
Independent economist Tarric Brooker asked: “What happens to the providers who committed mass fraud? And the thousands or more who got a visa under false pretences?”
It is a good question. Shouldn’t the operators of the ghost colleges be punished and the fake students who enrolled in them deported? There need to be consequences for deliberately abusing Australia’s visa system.
We all know what will happen. The dodgy operators will get away with a slap on the wrist and the student visa rorters will clog up the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) with dodgy asylum seeker applications, thereby extending their stays.
We are already witnessing a spike in temporary bridging visas, driven by former international “students”:
There are around 3,800 registered training organisations in Australia. Therefore, the 150 that have closed are a drop in the bucket. There are still plenty of dodgy providers that pass the low bar to be accredited.
Rorting of Australia’s student visa system is a feature, not a bug.
