24th of May, Melbourne: According to a media source, two more Australian institutions have stopped the recruiting of students from certain Indian states in response to renewed worries about a rise in fraudulent visa applications.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Federation University in Victoria and Western Sydney University in New South Wales issued letters to education agents last week instructing them not to recruit students from Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, as well as the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The news comes as visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked of more “Australian and Indian students living and studying in each other’s countries and bringing those experiences home.”
In addition, the two countries inked a collaboration agreement on migration and mobility today to encourage the interchange of students, graduates, researchers, and business professionals.
“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,” according to the Federation institution’s message to agents.
“We hoped this would be a one-time occurrence, but it is now clear that there is a trend emerging,” the letter, which was published in The Herald, said.
Last month, universities in Australia, including Victoria University, Edith Cowan University, Torrens University, and Southern Cross University, imposed a ban or restriction on students from certain Indian states in response to an increase in fraudulent applications seeking to work rather than study in the country.
“A large number of Indian students who commenced study in the 2022 intakes have not remained enrolled, resulting in a significantly high attrition rate,” Western Sydney University informed agents in a communication issued on May 8.
Punjab, Gujarat, and Haryana were selected by the university as having the greatest attrition risk.
“Due to the urgency of this matter, the university has decided to pause recruitment from these regions in India, effective immediately,” stated the university statement, adding that recruitment from all other regions in India will proceed as normal.
