Labor to target dodgy college visa rackets

The government has warned dodgy colleges running visa rackets that over 200 of them could be banned from recruiting international students.

The government has warned dodgy colleges they could be banned from recruiting international students.

The Albanese government will crack down on dodgy colleges running visa rackets, warning that more than 200 of them could be banned from recruiting inter­national students because of widespread use of fraudulent documents in visa applications.

In a joint announcement, Education Minister Jason Clare, Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor and Home Affairs ­Minister Clare O’Neil said they would consider issuing suspension notices to providers whose international students had high ­student-visa refusal rates.

“The government is particularly concerned about more than 200 providers that currently have visa refusal rates higher than 50 per cent,” they said.

The ministers pointed to a never-before-used power in the Education Services for Overseas Act to suspend high-risk education providers.

“This would be the first time an Australian government has used this power and reflects how seriously the Albanese government takes the issue of dodgy providers,” the ministers said.

The ministers said the government would immediately consult the education sector about “possible regulations to set clear grounds for the use of suspension certificates”.

The threat is part of a package of new government measures to stabilise the international education industry that is booming in the wake of Covid.

Up to May, 270,000 international students started new courses in Australia, 60 per cent higher than in the same period last year.

The huge expansion has brought with it thousands of non-genuine ­students aided by dodgy education agents and growing numbers of disreputable colleges.

As a part of the package, the government has also ended the practice of allowing international students coming to Australia to enrol in more than one course.

The ministers said there had been a surge in “concurrent enrolments” – 17,000 in the first half of this year compared to 10,500 in the same period of 2019 and 2022 combined – a loophole that allowed students to shift from a genuine course to a non-genuine one.

Universities and reputable colleges have complained they are losing thousands of students who soon after arriving in Australia transfer to dodgy colleges with “ghost courses” whose true purpose is to allow the student to work here rather than study.

“Recent investigations have identified this misuse of ‘concurrent enrolment’ as an integrity issue for the international sector,” the ministers said.

In another move, the government has raised the amount of savings international students need to qualify for a student visa.

The amount, which has not been raised since 2019 because of Covid, will rise 17 per cent on October 1 to $24,505.

More measures to boost the integrity of international education are due in the government’s migration strategy announcement later this year.

In a separate move, Mr O’Connor said people who owned, operated and managed vocational colleges – many of which enrol international students – would have to meet tougher “fit and proper persons” standards.

The change was agreed with state and territory skills ministers at a meeting in Perth on Friday.

International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said the vast majority of international education providers would welcome the reform package.

“The key issue going forward is to adequately resource the nat­ional regulators to enforce these policy initiatives,” he said.

Former vocational education regulator Claire Field also welcomed the measures, saying they were “precise and targeted” and a “strong initial response to the problems the international education sector and Australia’s ­migration system is facing”.

Universities Australia praised the new measures.

“We welcome the government’s action, which we have called for, to crack down on dodgy and unscrupulous operators seeking to exploit students for personal gain,” said UA chief executive Catriona Jackson.

Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia, which represents non-public tertiary education providers, said its members supported changes which strengthened the international education system.

“Although increased compliance activity comes with an unwanted administrative burden on quality providers, those that are doing the right thing by students have nothing to fear, and non-genuine providers will exit the system,” said ITECA chief executive Troy Williams.