Apex student body in Australia on Tuesday demanded better regulations for country's USD 15 billion international education industry following the reports alleging that foreign students are falling prey to corrupt overseas agents,especially in India,who charge them huge fees to satisfy immigration laws. National Union of Students said the standards overseas student programs in the country are bringing the nation's entire education sector into disrepute. The comments followed after a newspaper report on Tuesday alleging that corrupt overseas agents,especially in Punjab,are charging students huge fees for enrolments,good test results,and even marriages to satisfy immigration laws. In an ABC report,NUS president David Barrow said that international student industry must be better regulated. 'The Australian' on Tuesday reported how private colleges in Australia were offering huge commission cuts to corrupt education agents in India who were making false claims of work and residency to woo students. The daily quoted industry insiders as saying that a flourishing market has developed around the International English Language Test System (IELTS),with students paying anything up to $20,000 for a good result. "International students arrive thinking they will be studying in beautiful buildings such as Melbourne's historic own hall,only to discover on arrival that their college is a "dog box"," the newspaper report quoted a student advocate Robert Palmer. Palmer,a veteran of the education industry,said students were turning up at his Overseas Student Support Network (OSSN) in Melbourne complaining of being duped by their agents. He said colleges and regulators were also to blame for not doing enough to prevent students from falling prey to lying agents. "People in Australia conveniently say they can't control overseas agents,but if they are your agent then you are legally responsible for their actions," Palmer said. "Under Education Services for Overseas Students Act,providers - universities,TAFEs or private colleges must ensure students are fully informed before they enrol and that wasn't happening," he added. "If the act was policed properly,you would go a long way towards solving the problem," he said. While a university would commonly pay a 25 per cent commission on first semester fees,equivalent to about USD 1200-USD 1500 a student,Private colleges,especially new ones in need of students,were happy to pay much higher commissions to ensure supply,he said. Palmer said they commonly paid 30 per cent of the fee for a whole course. For a two-year course,which require students to apply for skilled migration,fees would commonly amount to USD 16,000,translating into a commission of almost USD 5000 a student. Palmer said since February,when OSSN opened its office in Melbourne,he had handled 1000 legitimate complaints. Of those,at least 80 per cent were about students being misled by education agents in their home country. Michael Bull,of Immigration Consulting Group Australia,said students were made easy prey for unscrupulous agents by the pressure put on them by their families,who often took out hefty loans in the hope the student would be able to secure work and eventually residency. "Their eyes are on the pot of gold and that makes them vulnerable to misinformation,badly researched information or straight out crooks," Bull said. NUS president David Barrow said he has a slew of suggestions for Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard to tackle the problem. "The first one is going to be making sure that when she has her consultation it's not just a talk fest,but that there are actually real solutions," he said adding,"The second thing will be getting some student representation in the international sector and the third thing will be dealing with safety concerns,accommodation concerns."
