Key Points
- The government is cracking down on so-called ghost colleges, which are exploiting a loophole in Australia’s visa system.
- This now closed loophole would have allowed international students to work instead of study.
- Some 150 inactive providers were closed, while 140 were asked to return to “quality training”.
Around one in 20 training providers have been forced to close or have been warned that they may be closed as part of the crackdown on .
One provider had not offered training or assessment since 2020, and the government said it was “winding down” inactive providers.
The government said it would use increased powers to suspend high-risk education providers, with then-skills minister Brendan O’Connor saying the powers would deter “dodgy providers”.
His replacement, Andrew Giles, said the “gaps and gaps that have plagued the VET (vocational education and training) sector for far too long” were being closed.
There are approximately 3,800 registered training organizations in Australia.
Ghost colleges, also called “visa mills,” exploited which effectively allowed international students to work instead of study. Those behind them usually try to recruit international students.
International students could enroll in a university course, which they could drop to take a cheaper professional course in which they would not attend.
Some 150 inactive providers were closed, the government said, while 140 received a “yellow card” and were asked to return to “quality training”. by the end of the year.
More than a third of providers that ceased trading were headquartered in New South Wales, 29 per cent in Queensland and 19 per cent in Victoria.
“There is no place for anyone who seeks to undermine the sector and exploit students,” Giles said.
The crackdown comes as universities criticize the federal government’s plan to limit the number of international students.
Under the proposed laws, the federal government would be able to set caps on the number of international students who could enroll in a course, which could be increased if additional accommodation was built.
The government said the changes were necessary to tackle the exploitation of international students by providers. The Department of Home Affairs previously warned there had been an increase in the number of “ungenuine students and unscrupulous providers” using the sector as a backdoor to enter Australia.
But Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Group of Eight, which represents some of Australia’s most prestigious universities, said this archetype of unscrupulous tertiary providers did not apply to universities.
“Migration is shaping up to be a key battlefront in the run-up to the federal election, and the university sector is shaping up to be the culprit, unfairly and unjustifiably,” she said earlier this month .
In October last year, Education Minister Jason Clare designed to prevent “shonks and shady operators” from exploiting students for profit.
The changes included prohibiting colleges from paying commissions to agents who help them recruit international students to colleges or universities; an appropriate person aptitude test for university owners; and tracking student attendance.
With the Australian Associated Press.
