NRI Students in Distress – Australia

Are Indian students abroad being discriminated against? Embittered by the motives of the powers-that-be at the Central Queensland University in Melbourne, Australia, international students, largely Indian, took to protests last month.

The students allege that they are deliberately held back for
promotion to the next semester by the management of the university
on the pretext of poor performance, in order to pocket an additional
year’s tuition fee.

The fee for each subject amounts to Rs. 75,900 and the University
has taken to such tactics of extracting another year’s income. The students are forced to re-enrol in a subject they did not clear, and failed on the syllabus they were not taught.

The University itself is unperturbed about half the number of
students “failing” in their examination, and squarely puts the blame on the students, whom they allege, are not working hard enough.

The agitated students resorted to a 2-day hunger strike which
caught the attention of the Victoria Minister of Education Services
to institute a thorough investigation into the issue.

The callous
approach of the University has not gone down well with the minister,
Jacinta Allan, but the students have had to pay up another annual
fee in spite of the government’s reservations.

Last year the students were allowed to re-appear for the examination
they had failed in free of cost, but the same “magnanimity” was not exhibited this year.

The Central Queensland University has acquired a reputation
for unscrupulous conduct amongst the international student community
in Australia, and fears of being falsely implicated in visa irregularities,
and ultimately, deportation, have gripped NRI students.

Photo: School corridors at Goa, India 02 by Fredericknoronha, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.