Australian universities recently imposed restrictions on students’ entry into Australia due to rising fraudulent applications. The ban has been imposed on Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir students, and Uttar Pradesh. One out of every four student visa applications from Indians is deemed “deceptive” or “non-genuine” by the Department of Home Affairs, which oversees the initiative.
The government informed A federal parliamentary investigation this past weekend that the rejection rate for proposals from India is 24.3%, the highest percentage since 2012. The rapid increase in fraudulent applications has pushed the Australian Department of Education to keep a check on the entries of students.
To prevent additional fraud, institutions have enhanced the examination and screening of applicants from certain Indian states. Despite worries that such a move would harm legitimate applicants, entrance to prestigious Australian institutions are not expected to be impacted because the admissions process is already extremely demanding.
Despite restrictions, Australia still welcomes students for new intakes surpassing the previous record in 2019, which is around 75000, according to the news agency PTI reported.
Restrictions Trouble Genuine Applicants
According to a story in The Hindu from last year, up to 96,000 Indian students would be studying there by July 2022, making them the second-largest international student population behind China.
The country was “on pace for the greatest annual admission of Indian students throughout universities and occupational courses,” according to Australian media reports this month. According to a counselor with the Chandigarh-based career advising firm Connect Overseas, “another explanation why students are currently flocking to Australian universities is because they currently only need to shell out six months’ worth of tuition in advance as well as there is no requirement to pay for their living costs upfront.”
“Over 600 instances of fraudulent documents being used to gain student visas to Australia were discovered by the Australian Department of Home Affairs in 2020–21. He claimed that these included learners from Punjab and Haryana caused the colleges to be cautious about applications from these areas.
The authorities are also worried about the trend of pupils quitting college early to work in blue-collar employment.
Rising Number of Dishonest Consultants Becomes Reason for Rejection
Education experts and Australian universities concur that rising numbers of dishonest brokers helping students and rising university dropout rates are to blame for the high rejection rate for student visa applications.
The alleged blacklisting of candidates from specific Indian states has been criticized as “discriminatory” by the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India (AAERI), a body of agents that recruit candidates on behalf of various Australian learning and training institutions.
In a letter to Australian university officials on Thursday, the organization said, “The presumption that all students from specific districts of India are ‘high risk’ is profoundly unfair and biased. The best course of action should be “one India, one policy.”
The AAERI also promised in the letter that it wrote to train consultants in education on the necessary ethics to stop dishonest practices. “We aim to motivate universities to employ only AAERI participants for their recruiting activities,” the organization stated.
Quality and Fulfillment Checking is Key to a Successful Visa Application
Good News is not all Australian universities have shunned Indian students. In denial of establishing such limits on Indian students from particular states, the University of Wollongong and Southern Cross Universities, mentioned in Australian newspapers as being amongst the universities that have done so, released comments last month.
Deakin University, planning to open its campus in Gujarat, told ThePrint that while it hasn’t imposed any limitations on Indian students from particular states, other Australian universities could have accomplished so in the lack of a “quality and accountability team.”
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