150 ghost colleges in Oz shut down, Indian students stare at bleak future

Hundreds of students who recently went to Australia after paying lakhs as admission fee to “private colleges” are stareing at an uncertain future. Recently, the Australian authorities shut down around 150 tertiary colleges “for failing to show proof that these were offering any regular training or studies to the students”.

A few of these colleges were in direct contact or were co-owned by unscrupulous agents and study visa advisers from Punjab. For decades, illegal private colleges had been providing backdoor immigration and work rights to internationals students.

“Under our government, there is no place for anyone who seeks to undermine the sector and exploit students,” the Minister for Skills and Training was quoted in the media.

According to information, the Albanese government cracked the whip against the vocational education institutes that were closed down as part of a crackdown by the Australian Skills Quality Authority. Hundreds of students from North India rush to these colleges every year “to take dummy admissions and instead work”, while their attendance and course certificates are taken care of.

“I came to Australia two years ago as a student after being assured that I can work five days a week, while my attendance and course would be taken care of. Now, I have been told by my Punjab-based agent that the government has sealed the college,” said one such student who hails from Sangrur. “The agent who sent us here has already shut operations in March after being booked in a visa cheating case,” he said.

A student from Patiala studying in Australia said she and her brother were working at a cafeteria in Adelaide, but last month they had been asked to report back to the college. “The authorities later shut the college. Till now, we have no idea how to handle the situation. We have already paid the entire course fee,” she said.

“I have already shut my operations in Punjab, after Canada and Australia tightened the noose around study visas. Many private colleges in Canada and Australia have funding from agents like us. We have told the students not to panic and there will be a way out soon,” said an agent, who has sent over 250 students to Australia over the past four years.

“The students know that the college admission is a mere formality and that they are free to work there till they get residency,” said another agent, who is now wanted in over six cases of travel frauds in Malwa.

In 2023, two Australian universities banned the recruitment of students from several Indian states in response to fresh concerns over a surge in fraudulent visa applications. Earlier, four universities had imposed a ban or restrictions on Indian students. These universities had identified Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana as regions presenting the highest attrition risk.