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Dream of Indian students turns sour Melbourne, August 30 Hoping for greener pasture, the woman from Kottayam in Kerala, who worked as a nurse in Saudi Arabia earlier, had come here last year as a student with her husband Biju. She had taken admission to Community Welfare course in Melbourne International College, a private institute. She continued her studies and worked in a nursing home, while Biju worked in a restaurant. Soma had expected that she would work in a community welfare sector after completing the course and would get Permanent Residency (PR). However, her dreams were shattered after the Australian government changed the PR policy, taking off community welfare from the priority list. The government has also closed down the Melbourne International College for lack of facilities. Adding to her woes, Biju met with an accident and suffered from brain injury. “It is a life and death situation for me here. Now my hope for PR looks faded. My husband has been ailing and I do not have money to support the family,” she said. Anita Nair, India's Consulate General in Melbourne, said Soma's case is just tip of the iceberg. Thousands of Indian students are caught in such situation as their dream for PR seems to have vanished. Nair said Soma is being provided help by certain Indian organisations and Catholic society. The Australian government has changed its PR policy by dropping Community Service, Cookery and Hair Dressing from the priority list. This means students pursuing these courses will face difficulty in getting PR. Most of these students take loan to pursue higher studies with the hope that they would pay back once they work in Australia after getting PR. Nair said the problem started with the huge influx of Indian students in the past two years. There are about 97,000 Indian students pursuing higher studies in Australia. The flow of the students increased by 160 per cent in 2007 over 2006, while it again increased by 94 per cent in last year over 2007. A majority of them come as students and use the studentship as a fast track to get PR. These students come from small towns and their competence level is poor. She said the Australian government is to be blamed for the huge influx of sub-standard students from India. The Australian government has said changing the PR policy is its prerogative. “Australia's need for skill changes from time to time. So the PR policy changes,” said a senior official of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. — PTI
Trouble Down Under — VI Australia, it seems, is concerned over the unfortunate series of attacks on Indian students between May and July this year. The Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard is convening a conference on international education in the national capital, Canberra, on September 14 and 15. Growing concerns have started affecting enquiries for admission for the coming sessions. Mel Koumides, Director, Academia International, a private college, admits that there has been minimums 25 per cent drop in the number of enquiries for admission from India. In Academia, Indians are the third largest group after Koreans and Thais. Other universities, including Monash, and Northern Melbourne Institute of technology, too, admit that there is noticeable a drop in enquiries for admissions. The Academia College had recently removed its agents in Mauritius and Brazil for their wrong doings. It has as many as 35 agents in India, including one in Chandigarh. Though there have been no complaints about either quality of education or safety and security of students in regular and recognised universities, they too, are facing a drop in enquiries for admission from amongst Indian students. “It may take us a while to win back the confidence of prospective international students and parents. Melbourne and Victoria are the safest places for education and living,” say a cross section of international educators and students, including Indians.” We hope we will soon put behind all these unfortunate incidents and get back on track and provide quality education.” Providers - universities, private colleges and TAFE colleges besides receivers - students top the list followed by various bodies that regulate, control or represent international education in the country. Twenty-three attacks on Indian students in three months generated a debate both in India and Australia necessitating the latter to undertake a series of steps to stem the rot and ensure availability of quality education to international students in general and Indian students in particular. Four of the private colleges have already closed down. At the receiving end are some of the private colleges - providers - who are facing the criticism from all quarters, including their own Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) that has 1,200 members of which 594 have permission to admit international students? Four of these colleges have closed down since the start of unfortunate attacks on Indian students. “There will be annual summit of international education in Australia this week where these issues are likely to be discussed,” says a spokesman of the ACPET, maintaining there is no set agenda for the summit.
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