Indian Students Hit After Four Australian Colleges Close

Friday, November 6, 2009 at 3:29 pm

MELBOURNE: Indian Students Hit After Four Australian Colleges Close, More than 2,000 international students, including India, have been left in the lurch – some with just two weeks before
obtain their degrees – at night after a slump of four private universities in the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

The teachers of schools run by the Meridian Group were told they were out of jobs in the Thursday night, but nobody told the students arrived on campus Friday morning to find the doors locked, ABC Online .

Several hundred students gathered outside Melbourne and Sydney group of colleges were amazed by the closures.

One student said: “In just two weeks we were going to get our titles.”

Based in Melbourne Jass Sandhu said he had no information about the school closure.

“Immigration must do something for us. If the university is closed is not our problem.

“We were looking good, we were paying our dues. They were not quotas, which were paying our dues right time. What about our future?” He said.

Some 2,700 international students were affected, including students about to take their exams.

The students came mainly from India and other Asian countries.

The schools, located on 13 campuses in Melbourne and Sydney, offering tuition in the hospitality, design, English language, fashion and secondary education.

The Global Campus Address / Meridian Group, which runs the four universities, entered into voluntary administration on Thursday.

Administrator Stephen Parbery says it is unlikely that the group will re-open schools.

“They have formed the view that companies are not viable”, was quoted as saying.

Jacinta Allan, Victoria’s skills and the minister of labor participation, says the government is reviewing legislation relating to these schools.

“The responsibility is with the State regulatory oversight, and we are confident that strengthen the guidelines. We are reviewing the legislation,” he told ABC radio.

“This is a company that has done what appears to be a reasonably quick decision on the withdrawal of financial support for the continued operation of the company.

“Managers have already entered and moved very quickly to close down schools, which also causes concern about the impact on students.