News Article

The reality is far more complex.

The idea that vocational education represents a back door to immigration (as some commentators have described it) is nonsense. The previous federal government established an explicit link between immigration and education. The education sector, public and private, merely responded to the business opportunities that policy created (something government, presumably, anticipated and hoped for). The different recent political rhetoric should not obscure this fact.

The allegation of dodgy colleges also needs to be unpacked. Reading some reports, one may imagine that opening a college is akin to selling wares at a local trash and treasure market: just book a stall and start selling product.

In fact, all private colleges have to navigate a complex approvals process (at the federal level) and are subject to ongoing and extensive procedural and financial audits by state regulators. The overwhelming majority of private colleges have complied with all these regulatory requirements.

The role of education agents, too, has come in for much criticism. While no doubt justified in some cases, in other cases the agents have been victims of sophisticated fraud, involving a prospective student's financial standing and-or work experience.

As with any business, agents have a healthy economic interest in repeat business so are hardly likely to prosper in the medium term by misrepresenting educational opportunities to students.

The best agents, in fact, perform a vital service, helping students and colleges connect in the marketplace, assisting international students settle in Australia and giving useful feedback to parents about the student's academic and social progress.

This debate also has cast students as victims mainly because of some highly publicised attacks on Indian students in Victoria. A more insidious threat to students, however, is the subtle and not-so-subtle disparagement of their motives to study and their educational achievements.

No study, for instance, has been produced to show that private college graduates are anything but as competent as their fellow students in the public sector, yet allegations of bought degrees and fake certificates persist.

Understandably, having spent tens of thousands of dollars in getting their Australian education, some students feel aggrieved and disillusioned.

All the talk about the failings of the sector - which need to be acknowledged and dealt with - risks obscuring the bigger picture, a tremendous economic success story.

Almost by accident, and in relatively short order, a substantial industry has been created. Millions of dollars have been invested, thousands of staff employed and tens of thousands of students have been trained and graduated. It's worth recalling that it was only in the 1990s that vocational education was opened up to private providers. Before that, a public-sector monopoly prevailed. Returning to that situation would not only be a policy reversal of historic proportions but, given government budget realities, would be a policy doomed to failure.

The international private education sector has, in banking parlance, become "too big to fail"; there is simply too much at stake for too many people. Yet fail it will unless all stakeholders - students, providers, agents and regulators - get together to create a sustainable future for this vital export industry.

Source: The Australian