Australian universities ban Indian students from 6 states, UT due to visa fraud
One in every 4 of these states' applications are fraud, said reports citing Department of Home Affairs.
Two more Australian universities have banned the recruitment of students from some Indian states in response to fresh concerns over a surge in fraudulent visa applications, a media report said.
Last month, several Australian universities, such as Victoria University, Edith Cowan University, Torrens University, and Southern Cross University, reportedly implemented measures to address an apparent rise in fraudulent applications from certain Indian states.
Now, the Federation University in Victoria and Western Sydney University in New South Wales wrote to education agents last week instructing them to no longer recruit students from these states:
– Punjab
– Haryana
– Uttarakhand
– Uttar Pradesh
– Gujarat
– Jammu and Kashmir
“The university has observed a significant increase in the proportion of visa applications being refused from some Indian regions by the Department of Home Affairs,” the Federation University’s letter to agents said.
“We hoped this would prove to be a short-term issue (but) it is now clear there is a trend emerging,” the letter, published in The Herald, read.
The report indicated that one in four applications is now deemed “fraudulent” or “non-genuine” by the country’s Department of Home Affairs.
The ban was announced prior to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to Australia on Monday, during which a large community event for the Indian diaspora was scheduled to take place in Sydney.
An earlier report from The Sydney Morning Herald said that a significant trend has emerged regarding the handling of applications from Indian students by several renowned educational institutions in Australia. Emails obtained from Victoria University, Edith Cowan University, the University of Wollongong, Torrens University, as well as agents affiliated with Southern Cross University, suggested a noticeable tightening of scrutiny on these Indian students’ applications.
The concern was that a considerable number of applicants, rather than genuinely seeking educational opportunities, appear to have ulterior motives centered around employment prospects in Australia instead of studies.
