Thousands of Australian students have been told their qualifications will be cancelled in an unprecedented government crackdown following the closure of three colleges accused of issuing fake diplomas.
Experts say legitimate students in areas such as childcare and disability services have been caught up in the saga and are probably unaware their qualifications have been cancelled.
The government is cracking down on dodgy providers. Credit: Andrew Quilty
The regulator, Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), said the college closures and cancellations were made in the interest of public safety because former students may be working with vulnerable people without proper training.
Over the past month, it has cancelled the registration of three colleges and issued notices of intent to cancel 17,000 students’ qualifications issued by the institutions.
The three vocational education colleges – Luvium, Gills College and International Institute of Education and Training PTY (IIET) – advertised campuses in capital cities including Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne.
The affected qualifications predominantly cover care industries and include early childhood education, disability support, aged care, community services and first aid.
Consultant and former vocational education sector regulator Claire Field said the move was unprecedented.
“In a way it’s good – we don’t want untrained people out there – but on the other hand how on earth have so many thousands of students been so badly trained over the last few years and the regulator has not been aware?” she said.
“Some of them are presumably legitimate students, and they’ve walked away with nothing.”
The government has been vocal about cracking down on dodgy “ghost” colleges which recruit international students who come to the country to work instead of study. However, of the colleges shut down only Gills was registered to teach foreign students.
ASQA said its investigations found the three colleges issued qualifications without providing appropriate training or proper assessment.
The regulator said the decisions to cancel qualifications issued by Luvium were made in the interest of public safety and the people who “rely on appropriately qualified staff”.
The students were given only seven days to argue they should not have their qualifications cancelled. ASQA said this was necessary given the public safety risks.
“These individuals hold a variety of qualifications across individual support, early childhood education and care, community services and first aid and may be working with vulnerable people,” a spokesman said.
In relation to Luvium, the spokesman said it received submissions from 780 of the 7360 former students in the seven-day response period.
As of Friday, the regulator had decided to cancel 7358 qualifications, and the remaining two were still being considered.
For the other two colleges, the seven-day period during which students can object to their cancellation has not yet expired.
The regulator’s spokesman said it was committed to lifting quality and integrity across the VET sector, saying there was “no place for any provider who seeks to undermine the sector or exploit students”.
He said since ASQA launched a VET hotline on October 4, it has received more than 2800 tip-offs with more than half “providing actionable intelligence”.
Its investigations and enforcement team is managing more than 200 serious matters relating to 179 providers.
There are 23 ongoing investigations into training providers, most of which relate to misleading advertising practices and qualification fraud.
“In the case of Luvium, its registration was cancelled because, among other things, ASQA found that it issued qualifications without appropriate training or competency-based assessment by qualified assessors,” the spokesman said.
“The registration of Gills College was cancelled because it issued qualifications and statements of attainment without adequate assessment, and did not ensure students had successfully satisfied all requirements prior to issuing VET certification.
“IIET’s registration was cancelled because it had issued qualifications without appropriate training or competency-based assessment by qualified assessors.”
Field said the regulator needed to explain why the training of the cancelled providers was so bad that students’ qualifications had to be cancelled, while other colleges have had their registration cancelled without students being affected.
“I am surprised because it’s a big change from their previous approach over a number of years, that this is a measure of last resort,” she said.
“To see them use it so frequently with such large numbers in such a short space of time signals a change in their regulatory approach that hasn’t been communicated to the sector.”
Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia chief executive Troy Williams said the group supported the action taken against “substandard providers” and backed ongoing action to protect students and the sector’s reputation.
“We continue to engage with ASQA and departmental staff extensively to ensure that students get the right advice about what’s happening and their options. This work is ongoing,” he said.
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