Punjab: 150 ghost colleges closed in Australia, future of Indian students is bleak

Punjab: Hundreds of students who recently went to Australia are looking at an uncertain future after paying lakhs in fees in “private colleges”. Recently, Australian authorities shut down about 150 tertiary colleges, “as they failed to prove that they were providing any regular training or study to the students”. Some of these colleges were in direct contact with or co-owned by unscrupulous agents and study visa consultants from Punjab. For decades, illegal private colleges were providing immigration and work rights to international students through the back door. “Under our government, there is no place for anyone who wants to undermine the sector and exploit students,” the Minister of Skills and Training told the media. According to information, the Albanian government took strict action against the vocational education institutions that were closed as part of the action taken by the Australian Skills Quality Authority.

Hundreds of students from North India go to these colleges every year to “take dummy admissions and work instead” while their attendance and course certificates are falsified. “I came to Australia as a student two years ago, I was assured that I could 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,” said a student from Sangrur. “The agent who sent us here has stopped working in March itself after a case was registered against him for visa fraud,” he said. A student from Patiala studying in Australia said she and her brother were working in a cafeteria in Adelaide but were asked to report back to the college last month. “Later the authorities shut down the college. As of now, we don’t know how to handle the situation. We have already paid the entire course fees,” she said. “I have stopped my work in Punjab, as Canada and Australia have tightened the noose on study visas. Many private colleges in Canada and Australia get funding from agents like us. We have told students not to panic and a way out will be found soon,” said an agent who has sent more than 250 students to Australia in the past four years. “Students know that admission to college is just a formality and they are free to work there till they get residency,” said another agent wanted in more than six cases of travel fraud in Malwa. In 2023, two Australian universities banned the recruitment of students from several Indian states in response to new concerns over a rise in fraudulent visa applications. Earlier, four universities had imposed bans or restrictions on Indian students. These universities had identified Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana as the highest risk areas.