AUSTRALIA'S lust for high-dollar Indian students has led to a thriving black market in sham marriages, forged English language exams and bogus courses, and turned a once-respected international education sector into a recognised immigration racket.
While the federal government and industry work to repair the damage caused by a recent spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia, education agents say the violence has shone a light on a $14 billion industry riven with corruption.
An investigation into the overseas student industry has found thousands of Indians each year are being enrolled in dodgy courses at inflated prices and sold unrealistic dreams of cheap living and plentiful jobs.
The Australian has found operators across the Punjab, the main feeder community for Indian students in Australia, openly advertising "contract marriages" for aspiring immigrants to partners who have passed the mandatory English test for a student visa.
For an additional fee, agents will arrange bank documents and loans to satisfy Australian immigration law that demands students have the means to support themselves for the duration of their course.
Industry insiders say a flourishing market has also developed around the International English Language Test System, with students paying anything up to $20,000 for a good result.
Sonya Singh, a respected Indian education agent servicing the Australian market, says the myriad scams offered to foreign students each year have made "Australia a supermarket where people are buying stuff off the shelf".
"A good-quality Indian student notices a completely no-good student on the same flight as him to Australia and starts to wonder where he's going," she said. "Indians are so conscious of branding and Australia's reputation has suffered a lot because of the recruitment process.
"My own kids didn't want to study in Australia because they had a perception that poor-quality students go there and that if they told their friends they were going to Australia, they would be laughed at or thought of as lesser."
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The solution to this problem is obvious: stop granting permanent residency to foreign students who complete a degree in Australia. The Federal Government needs to take some responsibility and clean up the mess it has created. Australian universities should not have to depend on full fee-paying foreigners for income, admission requirements and educational standards should not be lowered simply to put "bums on seats", and a degree from an Australian university should not be a ticket to permanent residency.
See also:
Indians among highest visa rule breachers in Australia
Getting residency via the kitchen door
When Skilled Immigrants Aren't So Skilled
The Howard Legacy
Migrant accountants fail English test
Immigration "not serving the country"
Foreign students exploiting immigration "loopholes"
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