A Chinese business is reportedly selling qualification certificates for some of Australia’s prominent universities for $5,700 with the promise that it can actually enter student details into the university databases.

Australian police have started investigations into the scam which sells university degrees for prices ranging from $3500 for “copy” qualities to $5700 for “original versions”, according to a report on the website www.training.com.au.

The business, whose name translates to “Overseas Students Assistant HD”  allegedly offers forgeries from 42 universities and 53 TAFEs including Bachelor of Commerce from Macquarie University, Bachelor of Business from the University of Sydney, Master of Financial Analysis from UNSW and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Wollongong, according to the report

“The forgeries go beyond the usual pasting of a name and printing a document.  The site claims that for $6500 it will enter the student details into the university database as well as the official qualification register of the Chinese government’s Education Department,’ states the report

Whilst the universities are aware of what is happening and conducting their own investigations most have referred the matter to the relevant authorities as well.  These include the police, ICAC and immigration.

A spokesman for Education Minister Christopher Pyne echoed sentiment that the appropriate governing bodies were aware of what was going on.

Major reform set for education agents

“Course-hopping” by students, a practice apparently encouraged by education agents has been cited as a reason the Australian government is investigating education agent practices with a view to introduce major reforms including the development of an accreditation framework.

One of the unfortunate effects of the streamlined visa processing (SVP) program which offers relatively quick and easy processing of student visas for mainly university students has been the practice of switching to lower cost education providers after they have started their courses. It’s a fraudulent scheme apparently promoted by some education agents.

The government has now ordered ‘a major research and scoping project into a quality framework for education agencies, marking a substantive push forward towards a possible national accreditation or ratings system’ according a report on the website www.pienews.com. The project is expected to deliver its report by the end of June 2015.

Heading the project is Phil Honeywood, executive director of The International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) – the peak body of education agents in Australia. Mr Honeywood is expected to travel to particularly India and China to meet education agents and encourage participation in a stakeholder survey. The survey is seeking feedback to help inform the potential development of a quality framework for Australia’s education agents. In particular, it seeks input regarding “the objectives and functions of a quality framework; agent accreditation systems, training and development; and best practice examples from other countries.”

A 24 year old man is reportedly ‘near death’ after being on a hunger strike for 44-days. Leading refugee rights activist Victoria Martin said that this young person’s tragedy is another example of “the failure of the case workers at the Department of Immigration to support people and deliver honest, accurate information in a timely manner.”

Saeed Hassanloo fled Iran with his brother as a nineteen year-old in 2009. His refugee status was rejected but because Iran does not take forced returns, Mr Hassanloo has been in immigration detention since his arrival in Australia.

“Saeed has repeatedly complained to advocates that his case manager at Yongah would not return his calls would not come in and see him would not give him information about his case,” said Ms Martin in a report in thestringer.com.au, an independent news site.

Ms Martin said she “sees this a lot” in her advocacy. Advocates across the nation tell much the same.

“We find people who have not got copies of their documents, who are harassed, as Saeed was harassed, to just go home,” says Ms Martin

Latest reports indicate that Ms Hassanloo’s condition is improving after he accepted medical assistance, according to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.

FIRB fees for foreigners who buy property here could harm the education sector, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review. The intended measures indicate a lack of understanding of the full contibutions of foreign students to Australia.

The fact is overseas students often buy property as a short to medium term investment to cover their accommodation needs and provide a decent return which potentially could cover some if not all of their education costs. They benefit, but so does Australia.

However the government’s move in February to introduce a minimum fee of $5000 to foreign property buyers is short-sighted and will send the wrong signal to overseas students – that “they are not welcome”, says the senior economist at Fairfax- owned Domain Group Andrew Wilson.

Australian education exports are worth a lot and we “need more of these revenue sources, not less” Wilson told the AFR.

“…xenophobia is alive and well in certain sections of the community, and certain sections of the media want to stir it up. And yet there are so many positives about overseas students on temporary visas buying property in Australia. If they don’t buy property here and only rent, it pushes up rent,” says Wilson.

Wilson adds that foreign student buyers of property are providing substantial stamp duty revenue for state governments.

Passport numbers, dates of birth and visa details of the President of the United States of America together with those of some 30 other world leaders who attended the G20 summit including Russian president Vladmir Putin and German chancellor Angela Merkel were carelessly emailed out by a case officer at Australia’s department off immigration late last year.

The error has made international news with the likes of the Washington Post, CNBC, New York Times etc reporting the mistake and announcing that the White House is investigating the issue and looking into taking “all appropriate steps necessary to ensure the privacy and security of the president’s personal information."

The embarrassing error was a result of a mindless moment of a case officer who simply failed to check the autofill function to ensure the email had the correct recipient’s email address. The sensitive email was sent to an organiser of the Asian Cup Soccer tournament who for a moment would probably have been impressed with the high level interest in the tournament.

DIBP has brushed off the incident as an “isolated example of human error” and it considered the risks of the breach to be “very low”, according to a report in the ABC. An email to the privacy commissioner said then immigration minister Scott Morrison was notified but the department did not consider it necessary to notify the leaders involved.