Is Australia Safe For International Students:

Train stations, bus stops, even pavements in and around Melbourne, the Australian city in Victoria which is home to thousands of Indian students, have increasingly turned unsafe with a good number of attacks on migrant youth being reported from the suburbs.

Some of these crimes bear the ‘us-versus-them’ racial overtone while most, according to Victoria Police, come as “assaults and robberies”, and many other cases go unreported, possibly for fear of a backlash.

The Federation of Indian Students in Australia (FISA), which has taken up the concern with Victoria Police, local lawmakers, as well as the Indian government, says the number of attacks, “fortunately directed towards male Indian students only”, could be as high as three per day.

“Most (Indian) students are doing well and feel secure. But a significant number are at the receiving end. This is leading to huge problems, including some students being forced to the edge of the society. We have seen the emergence of Indian students’ vigilante groups, an increase in suicides, depression, other health problems and students failing due to extraneous factors,” he said.

Victoria police, calling these crimes “extremely serious”, said the number of reported cases has decreased due to a series of public forums and education/information sessions organized by them and local community organizations.

Gupta said, “I would advise Indian students to be aware of what they are getting into. Once there, they should get involved with community groups and avoid unsafe suburbs, universities and institutes. Many private agents in India misguide students and the Australian government doesn’t monitor the inflow”.

Source Of Information: The Times Of India

Indian Students Studying Abroad:

Industry body Assoc ham on Monday said over $ 13 billion is spent every year by about 450,000 Indian students on higher education abroad as they are not accommodated by domestic institutions.

Over 90 per cent of students appearing for IIT and IIM entrance examinations are rejected due to capacity constraints, of which the top 40 per cent pay to get admission abroad.

“Over 150,000 students every year go overseas for university education, which costs India a foreign exchange outflow of 10 billion dollars. This amount is sufficient to build more IIMs and IITs,” it said.

The primary reason for a large number of Indian students seeking professional education abroad is lack of capacity in Indian institutions. The trend can be reversed by opening series of quality institutes with public-private partnership by completely deregulating higher education, Assoc ham President Venugopal Dhoot said in a statement.

Higher education in India is subsidized as an IIT student pays an average $ 120 monthly fee, while students opting for education in institutions in Australia, Canada, Singapore, the US and UK shell out $ 1,500-5,000 as fees every month.

Deregulation of higher education in the country will result in creating annual revenues of $ 50-100 billion, besides providing 10-20 million additional jobs in the field of education alone, the chamber said.

India has only 27,000 foreign students, as compared to four lakh in Australia.

Assoc ham further said vocational education in India is a meager five per cent of its total employed workforce of 459.10 million as against 95 per cent in South Korea, 80 per cent in Japan and 70 per cent in Germany.

Source Of Information: The Times Of India

Indian Students In Australia:

Close to 40,000 Indian students enrolled in Australia in 2006-07, according to IDP Education, supported by The Australian Trade Commission (Australia).

Indian student enrollments in Australia have been growing at over 35 per cent per annum, officials of the IDP said.

A group of 40 educational institutions from Australia are coming to India from September 8 to 21 on a student recruitment program, an IDP statement said. The country-wide initiative covers seven cities.

“This recruitment program is beneficial not only for students seeking study options in Australia but also to those interested in online and distance education programs and studying in Australian university offshore campus in Dubai”, said Henry A S Ledlie, Director, IDP India.

Source Of Information: The Times Of India