Comment: The Permanent Residency Rort

The Permanent Residency Rort
By Martin Davies

Martin Davis discusses the issue of so called institutionalized education. The problem was that international students only had to graduate in a course, targeting the Skills in Demand List provided by the Department of Immigration and Internal Affairs (DIMIA), to be eligible for applying for permanent residency. Some private education institutes and their immigration agents used this institutionalisation to guarantee international students permanent residency in Australia. While this didn't help industry to fill the gap, the biggest problem for students, mainly from India and China was that they were not enlightened about rights and duties. Another door opened for a secondary industry following behind the education sector to exploit international students, mostly in terms of jobs and housing.
Although Davies’ article was published in March 2010, the issue has been followed up already by the Baird Review on the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 (Baird, 2009). One of the most significant findings confirms Davies’ argument about visa factories and exploitation. They are also discussed in more detail in a Senate hearing on student welfare, Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Senior Industrial Officer, Michelle Bissett (The Senate, 2009a) and Andrew John Bartlett (The Senate, 2009b), Research Fellow in the Migration Law Program at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra commenting on the issue. Their findings: Immigration agents should be held accountable for providing international students in Australia with sufficient information about rights and duties. Also immigration and education should be split into separate entities to avoid further institutionalization of the Australian education sector.

Reference

Baird, B. (2010, February).Stronger, simpler, smarter ESOS:
supporting international students. Review of the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000. Retrieved from http://www.aei.gov.au/AEI/GovernmentActivities/InternationalStudentsTaskforce/ESOS_REview_Final_Report_Feb_2010_pdf.pdf

Senate (2009a, September 18th). Welfare of International Students. Official Committee Hansard, 2-8. Retrieved from http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S12398.pdf

Senate (2009b, September 18th). Welfare of International Students. Official Committee Hansard, 9-20. Retrieved from http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S12398.pdf

Comment: Overseas students less able to afford us (The Australian, 20/10/2010)

Is the Education Sector the only scapegoat for declining international student numbers?

In the Bernhard Lanes Article in the Education Section of The Australian from Wednesday, October 20th, 2010, researcher Rob Laurence is cited revealing that latest studies have shown that Australia has become a more costly choice for students willing to study abroad. The major reason being that the market for Australia is more price-sensitive, especially in the education sector. Obviously more students have to add their own income to the funding they receive from their parents.

In my opinion the reason does not lie with the Australian education industry alone. A major factor is the strong Australian Dollar. As indicated again by the June 2010 figures of the Monthly summary of the International Enrolment data - Australia - YTD June 2010, released by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace relations, most international students in Australia originate from low income economies, China and India.

• As of January 1st 2010, 1 Chinese Yuan Renminbi was traded for Aus $ 0.1632230401, while the Indian Rupee exchange rate was Aus $ 0.0239108971. (XE, 2010a)
• As of October 1st 2010, 1 Chinese Yuan Renminbi was traded for Aus $ 0.1538389865, while the Indian Rupee exchange rate was Aus $ 0.0231771159. (XE, 2010b)
• The value of the Chinese Yuan Renminbi has lost 6% against the Australian dollar over the last 9 month, the Indian Rupee lost roughly 3.2%.

At first glance this doesn’t seem like a big difference. However, taking into account that e.g. the fees alone for an undergraduate degree at Swinburne University (Swinburne, 2010) will cost the international student’s family between Aus$ 16,500 and Aus $ 22,000 over a 3 – 5 year period, adding annual living costs of between Aus$ 15,000 and Aus $ 20,000 (La Trobe, 2010), the average total costs for a student over the total studying period can accumulate to somewhere between Aus$ 60,000 – Aus$ 120,000. Taking average wages in China and India into account, the value increase of the Australian Dollar alone can make the decision to send a family member to Australia for the purpose of studying quite challenging.

Further, most universities have their campuses in metropolitan areas. Another risk factor that I see is the shortage of affordable accommodation. For example, property prices around the three Swinburne University higher education campuses, Prahran, Hawthorn/Hawthorn East, Auburn, Kew and Lilydale surged by an average of 19% (REIV, 2010) over the last two years; another factor outside University that should be taken into account.

Reference

La Trobe University (2010). Living Costs. International Students. Retrieved from http://www.latrobe.edu.au/international/living/costs


Real Estate Institute of Victoria (2010). Trend Chart. Retrieved from http://data1.reiv.com.au/trendchart/default.aspx

Swinburne University (2010). Undergraduate Courses. International Students. Retrieved from http://courses.swinburne.edu.au/courses/coursematrixinternationalunder.aspx

XE.COM Inc. (2010a, January 1st). XE. Retrieved from http://www.xe.com/ict/?basecur=AUD&historical=true&month=1&day=1&year=2010&sort_by=name&image.x=45&image.y=13&image=Submit

XE.COM Inc. (2010b, October 1st). XE. Retrieved from http://www.xe.com/ict/?basecur=AUD&historical=true&month=10&day=1&year=2010&sort_by=name&image.x=45&image.y=13&image=Submit

Introduction - Why discuss this topic?

In my first ever job in Australia I worked as a casual lecturer for a private education institute in the Melbourne Central Business District (CBD). Most of the students were from India and China. That was during term 4, in September/October 2008. Naïve as I was, I thought these students were there to learn about printing, pre-press and multimedia. The conditions and the learning material provided were next to non-existent. I had to come up with all the teaching material by myself, which made me stay up weeknights until 2 am and work on weekends to keep up with the class schedule.

I was frustrated with the institute and how students and employees were treated, so I went to the manager and told him about my concerns. He replied quite honestly that it’s all about money, which confirmed what his recruiter, who was responsible for recruiting Indian students, had already told me.

I talked to the students about the situation, but they seemed to be fine with it. All they wanted was a Certificate IV in printing, which was the requirements for Permanent Residency (PR). The institute guaranteed a successful graduation and only one of the students seemed to be keen to work in this profession in Australia.

Later that year, Government and the Department of Immigration and Internal Affairs (DIMIA) became aware of the exploitation of mainly Indian and Chinese students. The institute I worked for was amongst the first to be shut down, later that year, but the situation for students only got worse as they were left in limbo. Finally other private education institutes that were not affected by the closures took them in.

Certainly, things have changed since then. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship has come up with an additional set of regulations, many privately run education institutes, also nicknamed visa factories (also see the Baird Review into the ESOS Act 2000), have been shut down and it is much harder for foreign students to study in Australia.

Since January 2009 I work at Careers & Employment, a unit of the department of student services at Swinburne University. We run our own job-database and have direct dealings with other student services like housing and finance. Digging myself in, trying to overlook the complexity of the entire issue about the welfare of international students in Australia, I realized that there is more to it than meets the eye. I think it’s important to make transparent how many faces the problem actually has. Be it jobs, accommodation, education, or immigration – international students are still disadvantaged, left alone or treated badly.