- State students after taking admission move to cheap vocational colleges
- Students from Punjab and Haryana are notorious for dropping out after taking admission
- The rejection rate for applicants has increased to 20.1% from 12.5% in 2019.
Two Australian universities; Federation University in Victoria and Western Sydney University in New South Wales barred students from certain Indian states such as Punjab, Haryana, J&K, Uttarakhand and UP. Sandeep Menon, a student of Journalism says, “It is because of few students the name of the whole community gets tarnished. It also has wider repercussions. Those who wish to stay here for long periods and wish to take up employment have to suffer. Trust and integrity is what counts.”
Earlier this year, in the month of April four universities- Victoria, Edith Cowan, Torrens and Southern Cross also took similar measures. Now the universities are separating students from value and ‘high risk’ countries.
Australia is a popular destination for Indian students. The number has been steadily rising form 29,573 students in 2014-15 to 52,000 in 2022-23.
How do students drop from pvt colleges and take admission in vocational colleges?
Initially, Indian agents get a student placed in an expensive private college. Once a student arrives in Australia, the agent facilitates a move to a low-cost programme. Agents in India and their contacts in Australia coordinate. During Covid, a majority of students started working full-time and stopped attending classes.
Arvind T, an education consultant says banning Indian students could have a major impact. The Australian authorities can actually tweak the policy, increase the fee and have other parameters to check genuine candidates rather than a blanket ban. However, it may be noted that the university authorities are keen on not letting in students from select states.
Australia is a sought after destination for studies apart from USA, Canada and New Zealand for Indian students.
