Overseas students in limbo as college collapses

VICTORIAN education authorities were last night scrambling to place 300 mainly Indian and Nepalese students in new courses, following the collapse of a private vocational college in Melbourne.

The Melbourne International College had its education licence cancelled by the state Registration and Qualifications Authority, forcing it to cease operation.

It is the biggest such collapse since the failure of Sydney's Global College last year.

Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority director Lynn Glover said yesterday that MIC students would be able to transfer to another provider "following the business failure of the college and the cancellation of its education licence".

Industry observers said last night that they believed the college's collapse was likely to have been driven by the joint federal and state government rapid audit program of high-risk colleges.

When asked if MIC was one of 18 colleges subject to rapid audit, Ms Glover refused to comment.

It is believed the collapse of MIC -- which could not come at a more sensitive time for the Australian education export sector -- is linked to the recent crackdown on Australia's permanent residency-driven private training sector.

It is understood the college's difficulties may stem from the fact that welfare -- the college's mainstay course -- was not included on the federal government's recently updated critical skills list for potential immigrants.

MIC director Yarlini Nadarajamoorthy, 22, refused to comment on the reasons for the college's business failure when contacted by The Australian last night.

She said she would be unable to speak about the collapse until her father arrived home.

Australian Council of Private Education and Training chief executive Andrew Smith told The Australian he was confident that fellow ACPET member colleges would be able to accommodate displaced students in alternative courses.

"We haven't had a closure in this type of course in Melbourne before," he said. "Once the Tuition Assurance scheme is activated we have 28 days to place them elsewhere," he said.

All international students are covered by a consumer protection framework administered by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. However a string of smaller college collapses over recent years has strained the back-up fee refund program. Ms Glover said she expected the student relocations process to be completed in the next few weeks.

However a senior private training source who would not be named told The Australian that the private college sector was already straining under the weight of having to accommodate students displaced from other collapsed colleges.

An investigation by The Australian has established that private training colleges are not subject to publicly available audit.



17/07/2009