Indians at Oz vocational institutes targeted most

26 Jun 2009, 0110 hrs IST, Roli Srivastava, TNN MELBOURNE: An estimated 75 per cent the 96,000 Indian students in Australia currently are pursuing "vocational courses" such as hair cutting, hospitality or even cooking in little-known private institutions that have mushroomed in and around Melbourne over the last few years. Most of these students use these courses as a route to apply for Permanent Resident (PR) status. This phenomenon is at the root of the string of attacks on Indian students here over the last couple of months. The Indian student enrolments in vocational education and training (VET) shot up by a whopping 161 per cent in 2006 and by 94 per cent in 2007, as per the data compiled by the Australian Education International. But the growth in the number of students pursuing higher studies from India remained 5 per cent both in 2006 and 2007. Enrolments are often driven by fly-by-night agents in India hardselling this route to PR in Australia and are popular with Indians from a poor background. Often they lack both language skills as well as the knowledge of life in cities like Melbourne, making them soft targets, unlike students pursuing higher education. The Australian government which has come under intense attack for permitting such a system is currently reviewing the entire system. Mir Kazim Ali Khan of Hyderabad who was attacked two days ago at Melbourne is among the scores of "students" to have come to Australia in the last couple of years to pursue "vocational courses" such as hair cutting, hospitality or even cooking in little-known private institutions that have mushroomed in and around Melbourne over the last few years. And this phenomenon is at the root of the string of attacks on Indian students here over the last couple of months. The Victorian government here is now cracking down on these private institutions, auditing and reviewing their functions. Detailed interactions with both Indian and Australian community, including senior officials of Victoria state and the federal government looking into the matter reveals that of the total Indian student community of 96,000 in Australia currently, an estimated 75 per cent are pursuing vocational courses. The Indian student enrolments in vocational education and training (VET) shot up by a whopping 161 per cent in 2006 and by 94 per cent in 2007. In 2008, there were 52,381 Indian students enrolled in these programmes, the highest number from any country, as per the data compiled by the Australian Education International. Meanwhile, the growth in the number of students pursuing higher studies from India remained 5 per cent both in 2006 and 2007. Australia has a $15 billion education export industry much of which is fuelled by Asians, many of them Indians. Students from India and China account for the largest overseas student communities here. Among those who came here is taxi driver Mintu Sharma who hails from Ganganagar in Rajasthan and says he has done his LLB from Punjab University. "I took up a course in Carrick institute on community welfare," he says, adding that both the course and the institute were "time pass" and only a route to apply for Permanent Residency (PR) visa. Locals here point out that 90 per cent of taxi drivers in the city are Indians. "I earn $600 per week which is very good," Sharma says. Son of a farmer, Sharma says that there are scores of students like him, many from Hyderabad, who have done their BCAs but take up courses like community welfare to get PR. While enrolments of Indian students increased in all the states, the strongest growth was seen in Victoria and Queensland states with the most popular vocational courses being management and commerce, food hospitality and personal services and society and culture. Senior government officials here observed that these students lacked both language skills as well as their knowledge of life in cities like Melbourne and thus made them soft targets for such attacks, unlike students pursuing higher education. "We (Indians) are physically not so hefty and we carry gadgets like mobiles, laptops and i-pods. Since we do not have money, we take the public transport and this makes us liable to be waylaid," Sharma explains. Most of these students are enrolled in courses being provided by private institutions that have agents working feverishly in India selling the education route to PR in Australia. According to local Indian community members here these agents are particularly active in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat and so far the formula has worked with them applying for PR after completing three years in Australia. Called "PR factories" locally, such institutions have attracted young students from poor financial backgrounds in droves. On a student visa, they not only do the course but also work (on most occasions for more than the allowed 20 hours per week), live in poor suburbs of the city considered "unsafe" by many and work late hours to fend for themselves. They, say locals, are easy targets. "They are here after borrowing a lot of money to show the financial status required, to be eligible for their student visa. Once here, they have to pay their institutions fees and in addition their families too expect support. Most of them are doing two to three jobs and living in unsuitable areas where safety is an issue," says Ravi Bhatia, CEO, Primus Telecom, who made Australia his home several years ago. Bhatia broadly sums up the plight of poor students who fly down to this country, prepared to slug it out for the first five years hoping to live a decent life one day. While Indian community members question just how the Australian government could allow such fly-by-night institutions to come up, Jacinta Allan, minister for skills and workforce participation with the Victorian government said here on Thursday that it possibly went unchecked due to the growing demand for education in Australia putting a strain on the regulatory framework. Minister Allan also said that 16 private institutions had been identified and were currently being reviewed. The review was possibly long awaited. "A majority of all VET enrolments were with the 437 non-government providers. The non-government provider share has grown from 73 per cent in 2002 to 84 per cent in 2008," states an official document of the Australian Education International. Small wonder then that the Australian government is being seen at fault for not waking up to the reality behind this developing trend. In one of his much famous columns among the Indian community here, foreign editor of The Australian newspaper Greg Sheridan has stated that foreign students are given mediocre services for the price they pay. In the same column he stated that Australia scored over US and UK for education not in quality but because of its reputation of being safer and Australian higher education leading to a track for a permanent residency visa. Well, local Indians here say that this “dream run’’ of taking the education route to permanently live in Australia is nearing its end. "These attacks have inadvertently busted the racket with most of the attacks aimed at these poor students working overtime to survive and support their families back home, all for the PR status," said an Indian here who immigrated to Australia 15 years ago and did not wish to be identified. Now, these institutions, around 400 of them in Victoria state alone, will be audited to check how they function and enrol students even as the department of immigration has already made the visa procedure more stringent, seeking more documents for verification. John Brumby, Victoria Premier, said on Thursday that police strength was being beefed up in the hot zones where the attacks have occurred and that there would be a tougher sentence for the perpetrators of hate crimes.