Australian authorities and universities are rejecting new student applications from the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana. It is reported that some universities and vocational course providers have instructed their agents not to stop taking and processing applications from students in northern India.
Australian universities have indicated that they do not want to raise the expectations of students with low prospects of obtaining visas from these regions.
Torrens University told THE it was considering only “very strong” applications from these states.
“We are still awaiting further information from the government about why visa refusals from these states were so disproportionally high. If students apply from these regions and their visas are refused, any future visa applications could be jeopardised.”
Phil Honeywood, chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia, told the Times Higher Education that the Australian officials from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) had warned international education operators about soaring numbers of “low-quality applications”.
However, the DHA has told THE that they are not screening out student visa applications from Gujarat, Haryana or Punjab.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA) has also issued deportation notices to over 700 Indian students. Surprisingly, CBSA scrutiny revealed that admission offer letters from educational institutions provided by the migration agent to these students were found to be fake.
It is reported that the CBSA officials are not accepting the claims of innocence of the “victims”. They are unable to see any evidence to prove that the education agent prepared and arranged all documents. Further, they are also not accepting the failure of the Canadian visa authorities that issued visas and allowed these students entry into the country.
