SYDNEY: Indian students are turning their backs on Australia after a spate of violent attacks and a crackdown on migration scams, threatening a US$13 billion (S$18 billion) industry, education officials said yesterday.
IDP Education, Australia's largest student recruiter in India, said inquiries at its 14 offices there had dropped off by 80per cent amid a storm of negative publicity over alleged racial violence and exploitation.
'The way this story has been reported in India has very much overplayed what's happening,' a spokesman said. 'We are working hard to just remind people that Australian education is fundamentally of high quality.'
The International Education Association of Australia, which represents universities' international student business arms, said Indian enrolments and interest in private colleges were already suffering.
Executive director Dennis Murray said vocational colleges would be particularly hard-hit, with early indications of an industry-wide slowdown next year.
'I think you would have to say that in parts of the industry, and that's probably in the private vocational institutions in particular, there's an immediate effect starting to show,' Mr Murray said.
Australia's higher education industry is the country's third-largest export earner, with universities and colleges actively targeting India's growing middle class.
But the government has conceded that some of the private colleges which have sprung up to meet booming demand are 'sub-standard'.
This week, Canberra vowed to clamp down on unscrupulous migration agents and private colleges after a TV investigation reported that some Indian families, lured by false promises of permanent residency, had been left broke after sending children to Australia for courses that failed to deliver any educational value.
The revelations further damaged Australia's reputation, after a series of attacks on Indian students prompted demonstrations in Melbourne and Sydney.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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