By Asia Samachar | Australia |
Hundreds of students who signed up for ‘private colleges’ face an uncertain future after the Australian authorities moved to shut down close to 150 tertiary colleges.
The Aussie authorities have shut down the colleges “for failing to show proof that these were offering any regular training or studies to the students”, reports Tribune News Service.
A few of these colleges were said to be 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, the report added.
“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,” one such student from Sangrur told the TNS. “The agent who sent us here has already shut operations in March after being booked in a visa cheating case,” he said.
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