Organised crime targets universities in Aus

AUSTRALIA’S $16 billion foreign education sector has been infiltrated by organised crime.

A confidential Immigration Department report reveals nearly 40 per cent of detected fraud involving student visas last year was aimed at universities.

Previously, the problem was thought to be confined mainly to the private vocational educational sector with private colleges and language schools being the preferred target of people-smuggling operations.

But the report to Immigration by consultants Ernst & Young, obtained under Freedom of Information laws by The Australian, shows universities and vocational colleges are increasingly being exploited to place bogus students.

The Ernst & Young report showed that in the 10 months to April last year, higher education accounted for 39 per cent of student visas refused where fraud was involved. But it was higher in the 12 months to June, where higher education accounted for more than half, 53 per cent, of such cases.