Australia to see fall in number of Indian students

Melbourne, March 10, 2010 (PTI) - Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Wednesday said the closure of some dubious private colleges in the country would lead to decline in the number of Indian students coming here for further studies.

His comments follow the release of an independent report into the USD 16-billion overseas education sector for international students by former Liberal MP Bruce Baird, which found the industry has been distorted by colleges that were set up to take advantage of students seeking permanent residency.

Mr. Smith said he expected the collapse of some colleges to translate into a drop in enrolments.

“I think we will see a drop in the number of Indian students coming to Australia, I think for three reasons - the safety issues, the general adverse consequences of the global financial crisis and integrity or quality issues,” he said.

However, Mr. Smith said he hoped improvements to the nation’s overseas education system will minimise the drop in the number of Indian students coming to the country.

“I think one of those adjustments will be a drop in the numbers, but I don’t think that will be a permanent thing,” he said, adding “I expect the rigour which is instilled will be in the long term a much better quality outcome.”

Mr. Baird yesterday handed down his report, which called for changes to weed out shonky operators and provide greater protection for students.

“We have permanent residency factories,” he said. “If you ask any of the good providers, they’ll quickly name those who they believe are dodgy operators and are rotting the system.”