Five Australian unis place ban on Indian students

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Five Australian universities have placed bans on students from a few Indian states in response to an increase in fraudulent applications. According to emails in Australian media, there has been a “crackdown on applications from Indian students”. 

The universities alleged to have placed a restriction on Indian students are Victoria University, Edith Cowan University, the University of Wollongong, Torrens University, and agents working for Southern Cross University.

According to reports, the restrictions apply primarily to applicants from eight Indian states — Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, in an official statement released recently, the University of Wollongong has denied placing restrictions on students from India.

The UOW said in a statement that it “does not have any restrictions on student applications from India other than the standard entry criteria we apply to all international students and the requirements of the Australian Department of Home Affairs”.

“Like all Australian universities, UOW has rigorous entry criteria for all students. All Australian universities are required to guard against fraudulent applications.” The university statement added that UOW works hard to ensure that the “admissions process is fair and just and accessible to all students”. While this has created a fair amount of confusion amongst Indian students aspiring to study in Australia, it remains to be seen how the situation plays out going forward.

Australia is reportedly set to enrol the highest number of Indian students ever, surpassing the previous high of 75,000 in 2019. 

Foreign students heading back to Australia says government report

Australia may soon be reclaiming its title as a popular education destination for foreign students, according to an article published in the The Australian newspaper. The article refers to a report released by the Australian government’s new International Education Advisory Council which says the country will host 520,000 international students by 2020, an increase from the current 402,000 in the country.

AUSTRALIA: BACK IN FAVOUR

About 80 per cent will be from Asia and they will bring in $19.1 billion into the economy.

Despite the upbeat projections, the numbers still won’t reach the ones the country achieved in 2009, when 630,700 foreign students reached campuses across Australia.

Tertiary Minister Chris Bowen said interest in studying here was already up, with an increase in higher education visas applicants in the last six months of 2012. Actual student numbers are predicted to rise next year.

Released by Bowen at a Universities Australia conference in Canberra, the report foresees a "new era of sustainable international education growth'' after the "unsustainable increases'' in the VET sector between 2006 and 2009.

Number of Indian students in UK drops

Britain's strict student visa regulations has resulted in a dip in the numbers of Indian students in higher education by nearly a quarter last year.

Students from India coming to study at UK schools and universities fell by 23.5% overall, including a 28% drop at the postgraduate level.

Figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on Friday show fewer than 30,000 students from India were studying at UK higher education institutions in 2011-12 , compared with around 40,000 in the previous year.

India, however, remains the second most common country of origin for foreign students in Britain after China, which sent 79,000 students last year.

Universities have been warning the UK government that recent changes to student visa rules mean they face losing bright foreign students to rival institutions in the United States, Canada and Australia.

60,000 Bogus Students Could Have Entered the UK in 2011

Migration Watch, an UK-based think tank has released a study that indicates that as many as 60,000 bogus students could have entered the UK in 2011 alone.

The study is based on the findings of a Home Office pilot scheme which were published last week. Under the pilot scheme applicants for student visas were interviewed to determine whether they were genuine. This involved two tests – whether they were genuine as students and whether they intended to return home after their studies. The Home Office found that the highest percentage of bogus students came from Burma, where 62% would have been refused a visa on doubts about their credibility. In Bangladesh, India and Nigeria, 59% of students were considered as likely to be bogus. When these proportions were applied to the number of applicants from each country in the pilot, it emerged that the total came to 63,000 potentially bogus students in just one year.

Of those who were potential refusals on credibility grounds, 61% were applying for privately funded colleges, 17% for a publicly funded college and 14% for a university.

Following this pilot, the Home Office has introduced plans to interview 10,000 students a year and has set out the criteria on which they will be judged. But it is now clear that the government has lost its nerve and has dropped the second test (intention to return) from the student interview scheme which comes into force as the end of July.

The Australian authorities – often quoted by the university lobby as a good example of student immigration control – have this very test. Their recent major review considered it to be “The first item of business in assessing a student visa application.”

As for the scale of interviews, 10-14,000 a year have been mentioned but this is only about 10% of the number of applicants from the countries of immigration concern.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said, “We now have clear evidence of abuse on a major scale. Bogus students come here to work illegally and thus take jobs from British workers. If it is clear from the circumstances that a student is unlikely to go home, the visa should not be granted in the first place. After all, many of the advantages claimed for foreign students depend on their going home after their studies. These half measures simply will not do. The government have bottled out on bogus students. If they are serious about immigration they must face down the self interested demands of the Higher Education sector and pursue the public interest.”

Referring to the letter to the Sunday Times signed by 37 business leaders calling for students to be taken out of net migration, Sir Andrew Green said: “It is, in fact, impossible to take students out of net migration because, unlike the US and Australia, we still have no exit checks so nobody knows how many who came as students have actually left the UK. It seems that business leaders are clueless about immigration policy and will sign whatever is put in front of them.”

Report heralds new chapter in Indo-Australia relations

“The growth of an Indian student presence in Australia has

been messy and tragic. But it heralds an important new chapter in Australia’s

place in its region.” (Robin Jeffrey)

Beyond the Lost Decade, released in Sydney on Tuesday by the Australia-India Institute, throws up some interesting facts about the student crisis and the India-Australia relations.

For instance, according to the report, the first violence against Indian students actually came from Lebanese taxi drivers, migrants from a similar background, who found the new Indian arrivals undercutting them. It was an economic battle between two migrant groups and certainly not a racist attack on Indians. The report also indicated how Indian media magnified it as official policy of racial discrimination.

However, the report stresses on the fact that the student crisis may have done India-Australia relations a good turn. “For Canberra, they have served to emphasise just how important the role and experience of the Indian diaspora can be for a host country in terms of forging ties with Indian government and society.Indian perceptions of other countries are often shaped by the conditions and achievements of the Indian community there.”

The report also ends with many valuable recommendations to improve Indo-Australia relations in higher education such as:

• Undertake as an act of goodwill to extend the visas of Indian students who were in Australia on February 8, 2010, and whose pathways towards permanent residency in Australia were affected by changes to immigration regulations in that year. Such extensions or issuance of alternative categories of visa should be granted for at least 12 months from December 31, 2012.

• Extend the post-study work entitlement currently enjoyed by international students at universities to all TAFE institutes and reputable private colleges offering vocational training.

• Expand the study of contemporary India at Australian universities by providing initial funding for twenty B-level university teaching/research positions for the next five years, after which the universities fund the positions.

Student route back door to Britain?

The debate over Britain’s immigration policy continues.

Migration Watch, a UK-based think tank, has challenged the call by 70 University Chancellors, in a recent letter to the Prime Minister, for overseas students to be taken out of the migration statistics. This would achieve nothing except to destroy public confidence in the government’s immigration policy while any significant expansion of foreign students could blow the government’s immigration policy seriously off course.

According to the study published by Migration Watch UK:

Britain’s main competitors – the US, Australia and Canada all include students in their net migration figures (while distinguishing them for internal administrative purposes). Unlike Britain, the same countries interview students before a visa is granted to test whether they are genuine and whether they really intend to return home after their course. A major Australian report found recently that these interviews did not deter genuine students. The UK should re-introduce them.

The US and Australia both have checks on the departure of individual students which are still not possible in the UK. Over the past ten years two million non EU and ½ million EU students have been admitted to Britain to study for more than a year but the government has not the slightest idea how many have actually left. Universities UK accept that about 20% of students stay on legally – that amounts to net migration of 50,000 a year.

Some of those from poorer countries are likely to stay on illegally. Migration Watch estimate that they could add a further 25,000 per year bringing the total to 75,000. If the number of foreign students was allowed to increase still further as the universities wish to see, students could eventually add 90 - 100,000 a year to net migration.

A 10% change in the number of foreign students would change the UK’s annual foreign exchange earnings by only about 0.2%.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman Migration Watch UK said “Foreign students are valuable but the present system is far too easily abused. Sadly, the student route has become the back door to Britain and it is wide open. Unlike our main competitors, we do not interview students before they come to confirm that they are genuine and there are no checks on their departure. We cannot have a massive inflow of a quarter of a million students a year without their contributing heavily to immigration. Taking them out of the statistics would achieve nothing. The government must thoroughly tighten up the student system or any attempt to reduce the current mass immigration will be blown seriously off course.

Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of Universities UK, said: "In many respects the Migration Watch UK report makes valid and important points. The letter from university Chancellors to the prime minister states that any abuse of the student visa route needs to be tackled. UK universities are fully signed up to that agenda.

"But the Migration Watch report is wrong in calling for international students to be counted within the UK's migration figures. The Chancellors were calling for the government to remove international students from net migration figures in order to make a clear distinction between temporary and permanent migrants for the UK's own internal policy purposes. This would actually increase public confidence in the immigration system. No one is suggesting that international students should not be counted in the immigration system.”

La Trobe University to collaborate on research and development of leading-edge technologies in India

Australia’s La Trobe University is strengthening its presence in India.

The university has signed agreements with three Indian companies and institutions - global technology firm HCL, electric vehicle manufacturer Mahindra Reva in Bengaluru, and Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, Rajasthan.

The agreements focus on innovation, new product development and realisation, industry collaboration, commercialisation of intellectual property and institutional links.

La Trobe University: India Calling

The La Trobe University delegation was part of the Victoria Super Trade Mission, which was visiting India from 20 to 26 February. 2012. The mission was led by the Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu.  More than 100 Victorian companies participated in the trade mission.

Professor John Dewar, newly appointed Vice-Chancellor and President of La Trobe University is accompanied by Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President, Professor John Rosenberg, and senior delegates from La Trobe University.

Professor Dewar says: “La Trobe University is taking a number of significant initiatives during this mission to further enhance its presence in India. We are committed to our relationship with India and look forward to building increasingly strong research and educational collaborations with Indian companies and institutions, and welcoming more Indian students to our campuses in Australia.’

Professor Dewar explained that the alliance with HCL involves collaboration on research and development of leading-edge technology for Intelligent Transport Systems. It deals with traffic and infrastructure management, security, enhanced driver safety and logistics support for transport operations. It also involves recruitment by the company of La Trobe University graduates.

Professor John Dewar, Vice Chancellor and President

Professor Dewar will also sign a higher education exchange and co-operation agreement for research and teaching with the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, Rajasthan. The La Trobe University delegation will travel to Bengaluru to sign a MOU with Mahindra Reva for joint research and development of an advanced ‘green’ energy management system at the company’s new electric vehicle plant in Bengaluru.


Technologies for both these systems were developed by La Trobe University’s Centre for Technology Infusion in Australia. They have already been installed, respectively, in a hundred cars for a major road and rail safety traffic research project in the southern Australian State of Victoria, and in Australia’s first Zero Emission House, built last year by the government peak science research body, CSIRO and private industry.