An Indian migrant has revealed that Australia’s fraud-plagued student visa system is being seen as a way to gain permanent residency as the Albanian government prepares to clamp down on growing numbers of international students.
Deep Sanghavi moved to Brisbane in 2019 to pursue a master’s degree in accounting, but later found a job as a wedding planner.
‘An Indian child might pay $60,000 to $90,000 just in fees to come to Australia. If you pay the money, you should think about applying for a residency permit, otherwise it’s a waste.
“The international students pay about four or five times as much as the Australian kids… and we have to pay the money up front.”
He said he is in the process of applying for permanent residency and plans to stay in Australia long-term.
“I studied accounting, but I don’t work in that field. So I’m going to do something related to that, which will help me with my residency,” he said.
While international students and migrants in general are blamed for skyrocketing house prices and rents, Mr Sanghavi argues their arrival is actually good for Australia.
“The biggest contributor to the Australian economy is international students,” he explained.
The most important advice Mr Sanghavi would give to new Indian migrants considering relocating is to focus on their studies and do what they need to do to get permanent residency.
Deep Sanghavi moved to Brisbane in 2019 to pursue a master’s degree in accounting, but later found a job as a wedding planner.
As of June 2022, there were 753,520 Indian-born people living in Australia, more than double the number recorded in 2012, with many gaining entry through the student visa system. Pictured: Indians in Sydney
Despite the high cost of housing, Australia’s high wages continue to attract Indian migrants.
“The pay is definitely better, that’s why everyone is here, I think,” Mr. Sanghavi said.
‘Because if you do the same work at home, you don’t get paid well.’
In August, the federal government announced that it would impose a cap of 270,000 international students, which would put an end to the widespread decay of the international education system.
Powers have also been expanded to suspend training providers that provide little teaching but only collect tuition fees and issue visas to students who plan to stay for a longer period and work as low-skilled workers.
These agencies are known as “ghost colleges” and “visa factories” and can be issued with a warning and given six months to improve their practices.
If they do not do this, the providers will be excluded from recruiting international students.
According to Jason Clare, the number of international student enrolments has risen from over 520,000 to over 810,000 in the past two years. This has led to shady educational institutions looking to ‘make a quick buck’ by manipulating the system.
“That growth … has attracted people who are really here to work, not to study,” Clare told the Australian Financial Review’s higher education summit on Tuesday.
“It puts pressure on the reputation of this sector, that’s a fact,” Clare said.
Nearly 150 colleges have already closed because they could not prove they were offering students any education, despite warnings being issued. has been awarded to another 140 so-called ‘ghost colleges’.
In one case, a college had not offered any training or assessment to students since 2020.
Skills Minister Andrew Giles said colleges that were not operating with the aim of providing quality education had been excluded and closed.
“The Albanian government wants to put an end to the abuses and loopholes that have plagued the vocational education and training sector for far too long,” he said.
‘There is no place under our government for anyone who wants to undermine the sector and exploit students.’