India, Australia to target ‘unscrupluous’ education agents

October 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Australian and Indian Governments have stepped up their joint efforts to address issues affecting the 100,000 Indian students in Australia. The Joint Working Group (JWG) on Student Mobility met for the first time on 6 October, agreeing on a number of concrete measures to enhance the interests and welfare of Indian students.

September 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - In an attempt to promote Australia as a safe education destination for international students, Victoria Premier John Brumby has assured Indian Government that a detailed follow up report will be given on the action taken against the perpetrators of recent attacks on Indian students in Australia. Inviting Indian students to study in Australia, he said Australia in general and Victoria in particular boasts of some of the best universities in the world.

September 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI/CANBERRA - The Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, recently announced that Australia would strengthen student visa checks to stamp out fraud and ensure students have the financial capacity to live and study in Australia. These measures will reinforce Australia's standing as a high quality education destination for all genuine students.

September 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI/MELBOURNE - Strengthening of student visa checks to stamp out fraud, upgrading interviews and restricting online access to Australia's eVisa system to fewer agents are some of the measures introduced by the Australian government to reinforce the country's standing as a high quality education destination. Submitting fraudulent documents or making fraudulent claims in applications by agents on behalf of their student clients is simply unacceptable.

September 8th, 2009 SYDNEY - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will visit New Delhi later this year, a minister said Tuesday, adding that there is a "desire on the part of both India and Australia to strengthen and broaden the relationship". Despite some "irritants", Australia and India are embracing a closer relationship that will be cemented when Rudd visits the sub-continent later this year, The Age website reported Tuesday.

September 6th, 2009 TORONTO - Canada should launch vigorous 'education diplomacy' to woo Indian students, says an expert on Canada-India relations. Ryan M. Touhey, a professor who has authored a study titled "A new direction for the Canada-India relationship", says India is a huge education market for Canada and Ottawa should lose no time in wooing Indian students.

September 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard Tuesday announced funding of $8.1 million for setting up the Australia-India Institute at the University of Melbourne. Gillard, who began her five-day visit to India Monday, said that Melbourne University, along with University of New South Wales and La Trobe University, will invest another $2 million to bring the total investment in the project to $10 million over the next three years.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is on a five-day visit to India, on Monday assured that zero-tolerance for violence against Indian students has been adopted in Australia. Gillard, who is also Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, called on her Indian counterpart Kapil Sibal here.

August 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, begins her inaugural five-day visit to India on 31 August. The visit, which will take her to New Delhi and Chennai, will strengthen Australia's relations with India.

August 19th, 2009 SYDNEY - The Australian government is bringing in tougher rules to protect international students from dubious operators, a minister told parliament Wednesday. The move follows a string of attacks on Indian students and reports of overseas students being exploited.

July 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Britain, New Zealand and North America and not Australia are the favoured destinations for higher education for Indian kids and their parents. A report in the Australian daily The Age has said that media reports about attacks on young Indians and allegations of racism in Australian suburbs have had a serious impact on an Indian education agent's potential to attract students to Australia.

July 29th, 2009 SYDNEY - An Indian journalist, who was working undercover in Australia to expose an education and migration scam and was assaulted over the weekend, has said her attacker "looked like an Indian person". The reporter, a 28-year-old long-time resident of Australia, told The Australian Wednesday: "My attacker looked like an Indian person and I was threatened in Hindi." She was attacked in an inner-city Sydney street Saturday afternoon when a man wearing a turban came at her with an "almighty elbow to the right shoulder", the report said.

July 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Evans on Tuesday assured quality education to Indian students, following apprehensions over slump in migration after the racial attacks Down Under. Evens, who is currently on a visit to India said this while speaking to media after meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in New Delhi on Tuesday.

July 19th, 2009 SYDNEY - Australia sure is going all out to win back the confidence of Indians, specially students, after the spate of attacks on members of the community in the past few months. Immigration Minister Chris Evans is the latest to head to New Delhi to promote his country as a "safe destination".

June 8th, 2009 SYDNEY - In an apparent move to placate India, Australia Monday named Indian-origin Peter Varghese as the next envoy to India. Varghese is considered the country's top spy as the head of the Office of National Assessments (ONA).