Indians banned in some Australian universities amid fraud applications

Amid a surge in fraudulent visa applications, two more Australian universities have banned the recruitment of Indian students from some states, reports showed on Wednesday.

According to an IANS report, The Federation University in Victoria and Western Sydney University in New South Wales wrote to education agents last week asking them to no longer recruit students from Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, as well as the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir."

The development came as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was visiting the country spoke of more "Australian and Indian students living and studying in each other's countries, and bringing those experiences home".

Citing a letter from the Federation University, the report added, "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 report further added that this was expected to be a short-term issue, however, there is a clear trend which is now emerging. In April 2023, several Australian universities, including Victoria University, Edith Cowan University, Torrens University, and Southern Cross University placed a ban or restriction on students from some Indian states as fraudulent applications seeking to work, and not study, in the country are on the rise.

Punjab, Gujarat, and Haryana have been identified as states posing the highest risk of attrition in these universities.

To ensure that students from other regions are not impacted, the report also added that recruitment from the other regions will continue as usual. 

The Western Sydney University has placed a ban for at least two months- May and June.

The Department of Home Affairs is now terming one out of four applications as fraudulent or non-genuine, the report added. 

It further said, Australia is reportedly set to enroll the highest number of Indian students ever, surpassing the previous high of 75,000 in 2019.

(With inputs from IANS)