oneworldtalk

Heath Gilmore Higher Education Reporter

June 4, 2009

THE future of the $15.5 billion overseas student industry is under threat after the Chinese Government went public with concerns about violence against its students in Australia.

Battling to contain the damage arising from attacks on Indian students, senior university vice-chancellors now fear that Australia's third-largest export industry is at risk of crippling sanctions from the Chinese and Indian governments.

The Chinese embassy counsellor, Liu Jin, yesterday said his government was actively intervening to ensure the safety of their nationals, although he declined to list the number of attacks and where they had taken place.

"There are over 130,000 Chinese students in Australia. They have on the whole had good study and living environment in Australia, but attacks on Chinese students also occurred in recent years," Mr Liu said.

"It is hoped that the Australian government will provide better protection to international students from China and other countries and ensure their legitimate rights in Australia."

Anxious Indian parents have inundated immigration agencies and phoned their children studying in Australia after extensive coverage of the assaults.

The Federal Government has created a taskforce, led by the Prime Minister's national security adviser, Duncan Lewis, to co-ordinate the response to the violence.

Today the Indian high commissioner, Sujatha Singh, and the consul-generals in Melbourne and Sydney meet all the Australian deputy vice-chancellors to discuss their concerns.

Universities Australia lead vice-chancellor on international issues, Daryl Le Grew, said the industry was dangerously close to sanctions.

"We need to assure the Indians and Chinese that we are taking real steps to address these problems," he said.

Meanwhile the Premier, Nathan Rees, told Parliament he would meet representatives from the Indian student community, India's consul-general, the education sector, police and government to discuss the issue.

Revealed: student death toll set to rise

July 1, 2009
Heath Gilmore and Chris Johnston

DETAILS of the deaths of more than 50 overseas students have been suppressed by Australian coroners amid claims that the details are being kept quiet as part of an attempt to protect the lucrative $15.5 billion overseas student market.

State and territory coroners - under the National Coroner's Information System - have refused to release details of the deaths of overseas students between November 2007 and last November. In February, the Federal Government said under questioning in Parliament that 51 overseas students died during that time, 34 of them from "unknown" causes.

An investigation by the Herald has established that the real death toll is at least 54, and the number is likely to climb once the coroners determine outstanding cases.

Nearly half of the cases involved students from India, despite their holding only one fifth of the total number of student visas. The next highest category were students from China and Korea.

Official figures showed no suicides among the 51 but the real figure is at least three.

A spokeswoman for the Victorian Coroner, Jennifer Coate, said the information could not be released because it was not "exhaustive" and could be inaccurate.

But Australia's leading expert on international education, Monash University business professor Chris Nyland, said a desire to protect the $15.5 billion higher education export market was deliberately masking the suffering of students.

The revelations come as unrest and controversy continue in India over claims of racist attacks against students. In the latest case, two Hobart men were charged yesterday with the murder of a 26-year-old Chinese university student, Zhang Yu, who disappeared last Thursday.

The president of the National Union of Students, David Barrow, called for a full-scale inquiry. "Australian society and government needs to see all the facts, warts and all."

The Herald has found that if an overseas student dies, the educational institution is not required to give a cause of death when reporting it to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Under the law, the ESOS Act 2000, a college needs to report a death within a fortnight of early "termination" of studies.

A spokeswoman for the Education Minister, Julia Gillard, said the act would be reviewed this year.

The Opposition spokeswoman on immigration, Sharman Stone, said she raised the matter in Parliament because the under-reporting of deaths would cause further anxiety.

The number of deaths by suicide is expected to increase after inquests are finalised. International students also were more likely to drown than Australians, with at least 10 in the 12 months. Three students died in violent attacks.