Some colleges and TAFEs with foresight reengineer themselves offering degree courses, or as an alternative term higher education, now reap the reward.
It was not due to the fear of racial attack that deter the Indian students to come here to study, but the sudden change of Australian government policies and increase bond that took them by surprise.
According to the India High Commission to Australia data, the YTD March enrolments in 2009 was 73,717, and dropped to 36,326 same time in 2012, almost by 50%. Many students, not only the Indians, came to Australia with different motives. They really came for permanent residence, not for "that" piece of paper, either in the form of certificate or degree. They took up the supposedly approved courses, but only found themselves landed in gaining casual employments that were irrelevant to their study. As a consolation, a week's earning was equivalent to one year of pay in a some companies back home.
It was rather disappointing to say that even some of the better colleges including TAFEs, or the non-bogus ones, did not really follow guidelines in assessing the students. There are inconsistencies in passing students studying competency based courses, up to Advanced Diploma level. Some colleges would receive additional fees gladly from not-yet-competent (NYC) students to allow them to resit/reassess, which might be just an oral interview.
The current recovery is not unexpected, because many wanted to come earlier but lack of fund for their bond would have saved up by now. The new policy allowing the graduates to stay for two years after their study is not as bad as first seemed. It is in fact fairly attractive for them because our minimum wage is well above that of India.
It is unlikely that Indian graduates will be able to find an organisation to sponsor them after their two-year stay in Australia because the employment opportunity of local graduates is not that optimistic neither.
Has the quality of quantification decline in recent years? My answer is undeniably YES! How do I know? I was in the system as a very unhappy educator!
