Pressure to rein in 'corrupt' colleges

THE Federal Government is facing mounting internal pressure to launch a co-ordinated nationwide crackdown on corrupt training colleges that are making millions of dollars a year exploiting foreign students by breaching immigration and education laws.

Senior officials from government departments have told The Age that widespread rackets among private trades colleges are "out of control" and undermining Australia's education, immigration and employment systems.

Complex networks linking unscrupulous private colleges, migration agents, education agents and businesses offering work experience indicated the involvement of organised crime, one official said.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said serious problems existed at several levels: colleges and agents were fleecing students using forged certificates and immigration fraud; government agencies charged with checking the credentials of students entering the country were "lackadaisical"; and some students were complicit in scams aimed at securing permanent residency in Australia.

They said that while individual government departments and agencies were belatedly stepping up efforts to deal with the problem, a unified response from the Commonwealth was being hampered by a lack of co-ordination, confusion over jurisdictions, and a reluctance to upset a lucrative industry.

"It's out of control," one of the officials said. "In the current economic climate … I think people are fairly reticent to try to fiddle with this huge earner in Australia."

International education is a $13.7 billion industry, making it the nation's third largest export after coal and iron. Australia has the highest proportion (19 per cent) of international students of any OECD country. Full story here

The Age 14 Apr 2009

Corrupt Colleges / Universities is really nothing new. Australian learning institutions have been doing this for quite some time. Even with recorded acts it would be difficult to prosecute.

Since the advent of GLOBALISATION (ie. the deliberate breakdown of economic barriers) the market is rife. Universities are prone to discriminate and take in 'foreign' students as the BUY the degrees from the institution.

This move is supported by Politicians, coporations and Law makers are there are HUGE benefits in all aspects ofthe community, including cheap 'slave' labour.

It is NOT in the interest of the ruling hirarchy to stop this kind of behaviour.