MELBOURNE: Australian education industry has witnessed an 8.7% drop in international enrolments, with the number of oversees students, particularly Indians, reporting a sharp fall.
Australian education providers have reported a 8.7% drop in international enrolments during the first three months of this year as compared as compared with the same period last year, 'The Age' reported.
The hardest hit enrolments were recorded in the vocational education and English language areas, where numbers fell more than 21% on March last year.
The report said the biggest challenge for the sector is the Indian market where the numbers all sectors fell by 30.4%, continuing the year's trend, outlined in figures released in April for February enrolments.
It also recorded a drop of 19% from Nepal and 17% from Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, higher education sector enjoyed modest growth, with a 3.6% increase on last year's enrolments with many universities stating that growth was consistent.
Apart from attributing the drop to 'safety issues of Indian students', many education experts have also blamed Australian government for tightening immigration laws that were leading to the drop in student enrolments.
A report by Australian National Audit Office criticised the Immigration Department's processes and said they were "not sufficiently robust" to meet the challenges in balancing industry growth with the integrity of the programme.
The report said the department's visa processing arrangements and compliance functions had not kept pace with the demands of the dynamic international education industry.
It said a backlog of 350,000 non-compliance notices for student visa holders had been allowed to build up in the department by mid-last year.
The number of overseas students living in Australia last financial year was just over 400,000.
The audit office said while many of these notices related to minor administrative matters, the volume of notices potentially obscured serious cases of students breaching the conditions of their visas.
The report urged the department to complete an evaluation of its facility for electronic visa applications.
A review of the performance of agents for the electronic visa lodgment facility led to 300 agents having their registration cancelled in 2010.
The report also said there were "systematic flaws and vulnerabilities" in the regime for automatically cancelling the visas of students who failed to attend their course or make satisfactory progress.
It said the system was highly vulnerable to legal challenge, with some 19,000 cancellations overturned by courts over the past decade.
Australian education providers have reported a 8.7% drop in international enrolments during the first three months of this year as compared as compared with the same period last year, 'The Age' reported.
The hardest hit enrolments were recorded in the vocational education and English language areas, where numbers fell more than 21% on March last year.
The report said the biggest challenge for the sector is the Indian market where the numbers all sectors fell by 30.4%, continuing the year's trend, outlined in figures released in April for February enrolments.
It also recorded a drop of 19% from Nepal and 17% from Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, higher education sector enjoyed modest growth, with a 3.6% increase on last year's enrolments with many universities stating that growth was consistent.
Apart from attributing the drop to 'safety issues of Indian students', many education experts have also blamed Australian government for tightening immigration laws that were leading to the drop in student enrolments.
A report by Australian National Audit Office criticised the Immigration Department's processes and said they were "not sufficiently robust" to meet the challenges in balancing industry growth with the integrity of the programme.
The report said the department's visa processing arrangements and compliance functions had not kept pace with the demands of the dynamic international education industry.
It said a backlog of 350,000 non-compliance notices for student visa holders had been allowed to build up in the department by mid-last year.
The number of overseas students living in Australia last financial year was just over 400,000.
The audit office said while many of these notices related to minor administrative matters, the volume of notices potentially obscured serious cases of students breaching the conditions of their visas.
The report urged the department to complete an evaluation of its facility for electronic visa applications.
A review of the performance of agents for the electronic visa lodgment facility led to 300 agents having their registration cancelled in 2010.
The report also said there were "systematic flaws and vulnerabilities" in the regime for automatically cancelling the visas of students who failed to attend their course or make satisfactory progress.
It said the system was highly vulnerable to legal challenge, with some 19,000 cancellations overturned by courts over the past decade.
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