Female international students in Canada need more support to prevent exploitation by employers, a new report has recommended. 

Ontario-based non-profit Laadliyan interviewed 33 women, the majority of whom were South Asian, about their experiences as international students in the province’s Peel region. 

The organisation found that some of the “most horrific experiences” the women encountered were in the workplace, with interviewees reporting incidents of exploitation, discrimination and harassment. 

Examples of exploitation included withholding wages, not being allowed breaks, and travelling long journeys to work only to be turned away due to lack of shifts. 

One student said she was paid under minimum wage at a restaurant job and she never received her earnings on time. 

“We would ask them constantly for 2-3 weeks to give us our payment because we had to pay for rent and fees, but they still would not pay us on time,” she said. 

The report found there was “insufficient” support from institutions to help international students find safe and suitable work, opening students up to exploitation. 

The Canadian government removed the restriction on the number of hours international students are permitted to work in November 2022. 

But some students said they were “looked down upon” by professors for working long hours. 

Students also reported harassment in and outside of the workplace, with incidents of  “unsolicited physical touching and sexual advances, and demands of sexual favours by employers, co-workers, landlords and strangers in public”. 

None of those who experienced harassment had reported it. 

Other students had been victims of fraud when trying to navigate Canada’s immigration system. 

One student said, “I studied and paid money to a lawyer for a work permit. He took $9,000 from me, and disappeared. I know nothing about where he went.”

Manvir Bhangu, founder and executive director of Laadliyan, said these experiences are “common” among international students but that young women from the South Asian community are particularly vulnerable due to “cultural norms and expectations”.

“Women are often taught to respect men and not air their dirty laundry which is keeping many of these women from reporting their abuse,” she said.

“This is the first time many of them have stepped outside of their homes and are living alone”

“They are also more impressionable as this is the first time many of them have stepped outside of their homes and are living alone.

“For the male students, there is also employment exploitation but they may be more likely to share it with their other friends or stand up for themselves in such situations,” Bhangu added.

The report listed a number of recommendations for students and employers, such as more transparency among employers, including “clear and comprehensive employment contracts”. 

It also recommended more employer training on racism, discrimination and harassment, as well as a drive by institutions to raise awareness of support services in place for international students. 

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University of California, Berkeley and Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology will expand educational and research exchanges in technology under a new agreement.

The five-year agreement focuses on computer science, biotechnology, chemistry, mechanical engineering and basic scientific exploration partnership. It was announced the same week as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson on a trip to Scandinavia.

“California and Sweden are thousands of miles apart, but when it comes to our commitments to sustainable societal development and digital transformation, we are very much on the same page,” Anders Söderholm, KTH president, said in a statement.

“This agreement is one way our respective universities can build on the importance of US-Swedish relations.”

Opportunities the agreements opens up include joint research projects, conferences and workshops, faculty, student and postdoc exchanges as well as exchanges of academic publications.

“Our students and researchers will benefit with new networks”

“Our students and researchers will benefit with new networks that reach more people and have wider influence,” Söderholm added.

The partnership also aims to extend the “historically close” cooperation between the two universities, the institutions noted.

It was signed at a two-day conference in May, organised by KTH in San Francisco, that explored skills for the future, digital transformation and AI.

Research that will be expanded under the agreement will delve into building a more sustainable society as well as identifying innovative solutions for the future.

“We are excited about expanding our connection to KTH to advance innovation in the interest of society, to support researchers, and to increase global opportunities for our students,” Claire Tomlin, chair of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, said.

“This collaboration is sure to bring us closer to a more sustainable future.”

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The Canadian government is investigating fraudulent acceptance letters used to gain entry to the country’s institutions, as hundreds of Indian students wait to hear whether they will be deported. 

Writing on Twitter, immigration minister Sean Fraser said the government is “actively investigating” reports of fraudulent acceptance letters and would focus on “identifying culprits, not penalizing victims.”

“Victims of fraud will have an opportunity to demonstrate their situation & present evidence to support their case,” he wrote. 

“We recognize the immense contributions international students bring to our country & remain committed to supporting victims of fraud as we evaluate each case. 

“We’re also working closely with institutions to verify acceptance letters are valid at the time of application.”

#StoptheDeportations pic.twitter.com/Gn1cFLJF8M

— ਰਮਨ ਸਿੱਧੂ (@786ramansidhu) May 31, 2023

It comes as Canada’s courts suspend the deportation of an Indian woman whose college admission letter was found to be fake. 

Karamjeet Kaur, 25, is one of reportedly hundreds of Indian students under investigation after being found to have used a fake acceptance letter in her immigration application. The students say they were unaware the letters were fraudulent and assert they are victims of a scam. 

Kaur faced removal from Canada on May 29 after the Immigration and Refugee Board ruled that she had entered the country illegally, but this order has now been stayed pending a judicial review. 

According to media reports, Kaur has been threatened by the immigration agent who has been criminally charged. Her lawyer said her brother in Punjab had been beaten and the agent had threatened to throw acid at Kaur or kill her. 

Another student, Lovepreet Singh, has been ordered to leave Canada by June 13.

Students and community members have been staging a permanent occupation outside the Canada Border Services Agency in Mississauga since Sunday, and some have launched a petition calling for an end to the deportations. 

BREAKING: International students facing deportation to India begin 24-hour permanent protest in front of CBSA head office in Mississauga

The students have been protesting at 6900 Airport Road day and night since Monday. Join them✊

Read for more🧵#StoptheDeportations pic.twitter.com/lxSXovP1ps

— Naujawan Support Network (@NSNPeel) May 30, 2023

“For months, the students who are facing deportation after being tricked by education recruiters have been demanding an end to their deportations, a moratorium on the revocation of their work permits, as well as demanding permanent residence status so that they have the power to protect themselves and get justice,” said Sarom Rho, organiser at Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. 

Despite Fraser’s promise to let students fight their cases, Rho said this might not be enough. 

“Many of the students have already presented evidence, have had their hearings, but the burden of proof is so high and the existing rules are designed in a way that it already punishes migrants,” she said. 

“Many of them have already had the opportunity to present their proof but are now deemed inadmissible for permanent residency.”

Last October, prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his intent to explore a regularisation program which would give permanent residency to undocumented people. 

“There is an opportunity for the immigration minister and for this government to create an inclusive regularisation program that is uncapped and includes all undocumented people and ensures permanent residence status to all by waiving inadmissibility on the basis of misrepresentation, which would include the students who are in this situation,” Rho said. 

URGENT! Tomorrow at 11am, join international students to #StopTheDeportations and stand united for justice & #StatusforAll

6900 Airport Road, entrance 93

Today is the 5th day they’ve been bravely holding down a permanent protest, 24/7, outside CBSA offices in Mississauga pic.twitter.com/UJQHrxx8ix

— Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (@MWACCanada) June 2, 2023

A lawyer for Canada Border Services Agency told a hearing last week that applicants are “responsible for the content of an application for which they sign”. Fraser’s comments came the day after the hearing. 

Angrez Angurana, RCIC immigration consultant and CEO of Visa Plus, said Fraser’s promise to investigate fake acceptance letters was “encouraging” but it is “doubtful whether this measure alone will effectively prevent fraudulent activities or provide a permanent solution”.

“Finding and punishing these individuals operating from outside Canada will remain a big challenge”

“Finding and punishing these individuals operating from outside Canada will remain a big challenge, particularly due to jurisdictional complexities in various countries and regions,” he said.  

“These fraudulent agents often devise new tactics, such as using students’ identities or handling applications on their behalf, making it extremely difficult to trace them and hold them accountable for their illegal activities.”

Angurana recommended the creation of a dedicated portal that would be accessible to institutions and immigration officers, which could be used to authenticate letters. 

“Raising awareness can also play a key role,” he added. “Canada’s government needs to initiate a focused awareness campaign to educate international students about the risks associated with unscrupulous individuals.” 

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A last minute addition to Quebec’s Bill 96 will require international students in some continuing education CEGEP programs to take a French exit exam – a move some stakeholders are concerned will deter incoming mobility.

The change applies to Attestation of College Studies, or AEC, programs – short, technical training qualifications issued in Quebec by CEGEPs and some private colleges, and are designed with current job-market realities in mind.

The Official Gazette entry states that the requirements for French proficiency correspond to level seven in oral expression and comprehension and level four in written expression and comprehension.

“The student demonstrates their French proficiency by providing a valid certificate of standardised test results to the college-level educational institution. Students who have completed a program of study leading to the Attestation of College Studies in French are considered to meet the French knowledge requirements,” it reads.

“A student who has achieved the objectives of a program of study leading to the issue of an Attestation of College Studies in which all the courses are given in French is deemed to meet the French knowledge requirements.”

Bill 96, introduced in 2022, is Quebec’s French language law, and an amendment to the original Charter of the French language.

“Right now we are analysing what level seven in oral comprehension and level four in written comprehension will actually mean to the student who comes with little or no French previously,” said director general of Vanier College, John McMahon in an interview with Montreal CTV News.

“It might require several hundred hours of French courses that will either be blended into their program or they will have to be completed in part either prior, some during, maybe some after.

“But the law is clear that the AEC cannot be granted until those particular levels in both oral and written comprehension are obtained.”

This has an impact on the institutions in terms of their ability to recruit

The new rule will come into effect on July 1, but some stakeholders are worried the decision could deter international students from seeking out such courses in the province and have wider implications on the job market.

“This has an impact on the institutions in terms of their ability to recruit. It has an impact on the students themselves and their interest in coming to Quebec or to take these kind of courses, and an impact on the labour shortage already existing” said Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network in an interview with CityNews Montreal.

“Montreal is an attractive city but when you start putting these additional burdens on students, then it becomes a challenge to recruit those students here,” said McMahon, highlighting that international students could opt to choose to for another Canadian destination, without language requirements.

According to McMahon, English colleges have been playing a “crucial role” in supporting the Quebec economy for the last 50+ years.

“If we are consistently hammered with regulations that are in many ways unfair, then it becomes difficult for us to support those other objectives in the labour market for example,” he said.

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While many markets in Africa are still emerging, universities have been urged to “get ahead” on recruiting from the continent by major stakeholders.

During the NAFSA Conference in Washington DC, World Education Services CEO Esther T. Benjamin said that the data shows the demographics in Africa are changing fast – and the sector must realise it.

“We all know in this room that there are a million international students that come through [the US] and only about 4% of those students are from sub-Saharan Africa,” said Benjamin.

“But with the population dynamics that we will experience in the coming decade and beyond, 4% is really likely to increase – colleges and universities that get ahead of this recruitment process with the population dynamics shift will be well positioned,” she explained.

“If you go into any average African university, there are many, many more students than there are opportunities on the continent,” said Lydiah Kemunto Bosire, founder and CEO of 8B Education Investments.

Bosire also touched on the concern about brain drain, which is another issue the continent consistently faces.

“[It] typically tends to start from a place of scarcity; an assumption that Africa does not have enough brilliance – and you can take a few who will leave a hole in the economy.

“That is simply not true… when you have access to global universities, what you’re doing is enabling potential to be realised. Given how many young people there are on the continent, those numbers are really quite large,” Bosire explained.

Part of the student recruitment stall, according to Munya Chiura, director for business development in Africa for MPOWER Financing, is the ongoing visa denial issue.

He said that in bigger source countries like India, enhanced visa processing and efforts have been made to get them back on track. However, the African continent sees a lot more problems that create roadblocks to better recruitment.

“In places like India, Brazil, even China, the approval rates have been becoming healthier, more like at 70%. When you look at African countries, it drops to 40%. These are the realities of what we are faced with,” he said.

Additional data also given on the breakfast panel hosted by The PIE was that on average, in Abuja, Nigeria, students will wait 205 days to get a US visa appointment.

In China, the wait is 10 days, in India 56 days (however, this varies from city to city and appointments have been hard to come by recently), Kenya is 235 days. In Brazil, it’s just one day.

Chiura noted that the State Department specifically said that the US is putting “every ounce of energy into eliminating the long visa wait lists”, but that this is only really happening for countries like India.

“The US has increased the number of visa offices processing visas in India. We have a different scenario in Africa. By the US’s own admission, they have a backlog of cases, so these are the challenging aspects for our students on the continent,” Chiura explained.

Some 66% of students who get MPOWER loans are studying STEM courses – US Bureau of Labor Statistics has previously said there is around a 25% shortage in STEM jobs in the US.

“I think we really need to mention the disconnect in policy,” Chiura added.

Bosire at 8B – a company seeking to help African students get loans – agreed that the visa issue was extremely prevalent, but pointed out that HEIs “have agency and can highlight what discrepancies we are seeing”.

Before that change can be enacted, Bosire is guiding students who have visa issues to go down the route of applying for an emergency date, more often used in medical emergencies or exceptional situations, but that doesn’t work for everyone.

“Kampala and Kigali have some really good flexibility for dates… so sometimes we urge the students to take a flight to either city and try and get a date there,” she said.

“I think we really need to mention the disconnect in policy”

“[A Brazil visa appointment wait time is] one day? That means that there can be an increase in consular officers,” Bosire said during the panel.

“But who are the people who can push on this? Us. We are the ones who want more students in our classroom and we see it up close. We must reach out to the public policy spaces telling them what the problems are.

“[The discrepancy] is very, very stark and we can’t just sit and wait for it to change,” she warned.

The gallery from the PIE’s breakfast briefing with WES, MPOWER and 8B can be found here.

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Streamlining and prioritising US study visas and creating inclusive and accessible study abroad opportunities are top of the agenda for the State Department in the US.

This is according to the country’s secretary of state Antony Blinken, whose speech was broadcast at the NAFSA conference in Washington DC this week.

Blinken explained that international education is an important part of the US diplomacy and national security strategy. Supporting study abroad programs is a priority for the Biden administration, he detailed.

“At the State Department, we are working to expand international education. After the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic ended, more and more international students began applying to study in the US again,” he said.

“We took steps to streamline our visa process and make it easier for students to apply.”

Consular teams were asked to prioritise student visas and it expanded opportunities for some students to apply for visas without interviews. It has also recently announced that applicants will be able to file for visas one year in advance, rather than the previous 120-day limit.

“Last year we issued over 580,000 student visas, the highest number in five years,” Blinken noted.

The Department is also working with other governments to create opportunities for research and study abroad, he continued.

“Last year we issued over 580,000 student visas, the highest number in five years”

“We are working with higher education institutions and NAFSA to share information with students about international opportunities and to host exchanges like the Fulbright program.”

It is also “working hard” to make international education inclusive and accessible, he said.

With the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities the Department is seeking to recruit more students and faculty from Hispanic-serving institutions, and it has also eliminated the minimum length of the Gilman scholarship program.

Experts, such as Hans de Wit and Philip G Altbach and CANIE, have called for short-term study abroad programs to be “largely eliminated” due to the emissions they are associated with or to be replaced with virtual, local or regional alternatives.

However, research has indicated that short-term programs can help to break down participation barriers and encourage further international engagement.

The elimination of the Gilman program minimum length means “more students, including those with family or work obligations, can join shorter but impactful study abroad opportunities”, Blinken said.

“We are always looking for opportunities to do more,” he added.

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The government of Russia will start teaching three major African languages in select schools in Moscow beginning this year, as the country seeks to deepen ties with the continent, in the face of increased international isolation it faces over Ukraine invasion.

The languages, including Swahili and Amharic widely spoken in Eastern Africa, and Yoruba spoken in Nigeria and neighbouring countries, will be taught in four yet to be disclosed schools beginning September 2023, according to Alexei Maslow, director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University.

The African languages will be taught as part of a special program of the IAAS-MSU, and is meant to help forge closer ties with the continent, the Russian news agency Sputnik reported last week.

The announcement made during a Sputnik international roundtable on Russia-Africa relations focused on ‘prospects for economic cooperation’ attended by academics from universities in the two places.

It elicited excitement in some circles in both Russia and Africa, with the Russian embassy in Uganda happily tweeting the news. “Starting this September, students from four schools in Moscow will begin learning African languages – Swahili, Amharic and Yoruba”, it announced.

When actualised the move will reportedly make Russia the first European country to teach African language in its public schools.

“An abrupt turn to Africa requires a completely different type of specialists who could work directly with the economy and with modern political and economic elites, and most importantly, would realise that Africa is not just one big continent, but in fact, a patchwork of diverse national, ethnic, religious and linguistic traditions,” Maslov told the event.

“An abrupt turn to Africa requires a completely different type of specialists”

Swahili also known as Kiswahili is one of the most widely spoken languages in Africa, and is commonly used in East Africa countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 200 million people speak the language. In Kenya and Tanzania it’s the official language and the African Union has also adapted it as an official lingua franca.

On the other hand, Yoruba is mainly spoken in West African countries of Nigeria, Benin and Togo, where over 50 million speak it. The Amharic language is spoken in the horn-of-Africa countries of Ethiopia and Eritrea by over 50 million people.

Some 30,000 African students are studying in Russian universities and over 100,000 of them have shown interest in studying there according to the Study in Russia organisation, Racus. The country has stepped up recruitment campaigns in recent years, using affordability and quality as the selling points.

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Members of the Association of Language Travel Organisations met in Istanbul to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the association and discuss the current climate for language learners in the travel sector.

Formed in 1998, ALTO now coordinates over 100 member organisations, many of which include owner-operators of independent language schools all over the world.

Opening the event, Leanne Linacre, co-founder of LILA* Liverpool and current chair for ALTO welcomed guests saying, “It’s a real testament to the vision of the original founders of the association, that so many years later we are still coming together to share ideas, discuss challenges and have some really candid discussion about the sector and make sure our business are surviving and thriving.”

The association also revealed a new logo and website to enhance its growing community of professional development events, members and sector wide initiatives it is pursuing.

Christopher Thebing, managing partner of College of English Language in California said, “I joined ALTO around 2011 because it was recommended to me by a colleague.

“Now I too recommend it for everybody to join because it’s really valuable to exchange views with your peers from the industry, it’s fun and business wise you always go home with new ideas. Then it’s on you to make them happen.”

Nicholas Cuthbert, director of insight at The PIE, hosted an industry panel at the event that focused on many of the macro-level forces in play since the pandemic including accommodation shortages, staff recruitment and retention challenges and opportunities such as harnessing the digital power of advocacy online.

Soaring global inflation was also on the agenda with school operators and agents able to provide insightful perspectives across Asia, Europe and the Americas.

While renewed student mobility, pent up demand and work rights have fuelled recovery, the new threat to operators is inflated consumer costs including flights, food and amenities, margins that are all hitting the homestay market especially hard.

Jonathan Kolber, co-president of ILAC explained the issue, calling it one of the biggest threats to the industry in memory, saying, “For 20 years we barely raised our homestay prices, and in the last year we’ve raised it 30% and it’s still not enough.

“The pool of homestay families shrunk during Covid and we haven’t got a new pool coming. That’s a supply issue and the cost of feeding kids in their houses and providing internet have gone up dramatically.”

Annual budgets and a heavy reliance on agents to support applicants for language courses has meant that dynamic pricing continues to be difficult in keeping pace with fluctuating energy and travel costs as well as competition.

Colleagues from the Irish sector also reported on homestay capacity being reduced by families either using their spare room to work from home or in some cases welcoming Ukrainian refugees.

Turkey itself is consistently ranked as a top source country for language travel, and Istanbul was a fitting location for industry leaders to take stock of the current climate.

Selim Dervish, director of Academia United, an agency in Turkey explained that despite the country being ‘the champions’ of inflation, which stood at 43.68% in April, there is still a strong demand to study languages abroad.

“They want to explore and emigrate all around the world”

“The reason is Turkey has a very young population,” Dervish explained. “They want to explore and emigrate all around the world, so they somehow find the funds and money and go with or without inflation.”

Business leaders attending the event took the opportunity to raise funds for victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, raising over £5,000 – an amount that was generously match funded by event sponsors GuardMe.

David Brown, director and co-founder of Oxford International Education Group, raised a toast to ALTO at a special anniversary dinner, saying, “This is a club of like minded, industry focused individuals who want to understand and contribute and grow our sector.

“I think there’s no point in being involved in an industry unless you actually belong to it. Everyone here genuinely belongs to our industry and that’s what I like to call the power of ALTO.”

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Australia’s government is looking to enact wide-ranging changes this academic year to put a stop to unscrupulous agent behaviour and non-genuine students switching courses aided by onshore agents, according to an Education department representative.

It is also considering amendments to written agreements between students and institutions and the ESOS National Code, which is likely to see changes as a result of the upcoming migration review.

Acting assistant secretary of the International Quality Branch in the Education Department’s International Division, Alison Cleary, outlined amendments the government is considering regarding international students at an event this week.

Connecting student visas with institutions and English language proficiency are live discussions within the department. “Rogue or inappropriate” agent behaviour and possible changes to written agreements with international students are areas where officials are keeping a close eye and consulting with the sector to decide on the next best steps forward.

While decisions have not been made and consultations are continuing, government hopes and expects to introduce one complete raft of changes in this calendar year.

“With regard to education agents, we’re aware that this is an area of enduring concern in the sector where they might be a possibility for education agents to be acting outside of the requirement to act ethically in the best interests of the student,” Cleary said.

Agents involved in facilitating enrolments for the purposes of human trafficking is “enormously distressing”, she added.

“There’s also a general concern that high commissions and the market power wielded by agents are having the potential to distort the way that the market for international students is operating, and that’s creating some concern amongst the sector and among students. If these behaviours are left unchecked, they have the potential to damage the sector and the reputation of the sector.”

The department is looking to “put some downward pressure” on agent commissions.

However, she noted that “it is a quite a tricky matter” to regulate offshore agents.

“Whilst we understand the notion of a fully regulated model, it’s really challenging to actually do in practice. So we’re looking at how else we can manage some of the risks that rogue or inappropriate agent behaviour might create.”

Cleary said that in the context of the upcoming migration review, the government is considering how student visas operate. There have been concerns that the current system allows students to switch institutions while onshore, which in-country agents have been taking advantage of, as previously reported by The PIE.

Concurrent study, when students enrol in more than one course, is also being used as an option by some non-genuine actors, she said.

“We’re looking at a range of different market based approaches that are intended to increase transparency”

“[But] when we’re thinking about these issues, we do also think about the right of the student as a consumer to have some choice in how they might transfer. There are places in which a transfer is a legitimate consumer choice,” she noted.

“It’s all about getting those considerations right and coming up with a balance that matches needs,” she said, adding that any changes will be designed to be “easily digestible” by the sector.

The process must be consistent with Australian consumer law and competition policy, she continued.

There are concerns about unintended consequences of caps on commissions and that it could “push commissions underground”.

“We’re looking at a range of different market based approaches that are intended to increase transparency… We think there may be other measures that might be more effective and perhaps less of a regulatory impost than doing something like a hard cap.”

Confidentiality requirements around agent performance could impact transparency, but “we do think that an increase in transparency is going to be part of what we’re looking at going forward”, she suggested.

On subagents, the department is aware that subagents exist but it is focusing on the behaviours of the last entity in the recruitment chain i.e. the body, entity, organisation, person, business that brought the student to the provider, she said.

Under the migration review, announced by Minister O’Neill on April 27, a major body of work between departments of Home Affairs, education and employment is expected.

Via PRISMS the department can see how institutions are assessing students’ English language proficiency, but Cleary acknowledged that proficiency in English is key for student workforce and employability outcomes, especially with regards to international students being a “major feeder group for Australia’s permanent migration strategy”.

In November of last year, a report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office suggested that written agreements, that international students must sign to enrol at Australian education providers, appeared “unfair and unreasonable” in some cases during the pandemic.

“[Written agreements] are really a tangible demonstration of our reputation, our commitment to fairness and providing a really good student experience,” she said.

While the National Code already provides requirements around how those agreements are structured, the Ombudsman “particularly noticed” that students do not have much opportunity to negotiate the contracts – therefore they need to be considered under standard contract terms, which will impact on Australian consumer law with regards to responsibilities and obligations of both parties.

“The department is considering options and asking for views about how we can once again get that balance right between responsibilities and obligations for both parties while making sure that we’re meeting our obligations on consumer law and putting our best foot forward in terms of our reputation with our students,” she explained.

One option is introducing non-mandatory model clauses – which would mean convening a separate consultative process – to “make clear or provide guidance and support” provider to ensure agreements will meet all obligations and aspirations for the documents.

Another issue being considered is around aligning Tuition Protection Service refund operations between international and domestic students more closely. In April 2022, TPS was rated “a suitable tuition protection mechanism for international education” in a Nous report.

“There is a broader discussion around how refunds are managed”

“There is a broader discussion around how refunds are managed vis a vis written agreements and so forth. These are going to be, I think, relatively small technical amendments that we’d be looking at, and they’d probably be fed into a broader process of looking at refunds,” Cleary said.

In a ABC RN Breakfast interview earlier this week, education minister Jason Clare noted that the March agreement with India on mutual recognition of university qualifications will “make it easier for students in both of our countries to study in each other’s country”. An agreement between prime ministers Narendra Modi and Anthony Albanese will “build on that”, he indicated.

“There’s a number of universities that have put a halt on applications from students from some Indian states at the moment. I understand that’s because we’ve seen a jump in the number of visa cancellations after the university application has taken place, after a student is in Australia and has dropped out of that university qualification,” he added.

Unscrupulous behaviour of some education agents in Australia sees them “enticing students to drop out of their university degrees and either go into a TAFE qualification or out of the education system altogether”, the minister continued.

Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O’Neil, Skills minister, Brendan O’Connor, and Clare are “looking at the reforms we need to take here to ensure the integrity of our system”, he concluded.

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