A hairdressing college in Australia has permanently shut down leaving many overseas students including Indians fate hanging in balance, apparently due to amended migration skills programme.
The Sydney college that charged $7000 each as fees and equipment three weeks ago from the overseas students before announcing its closure.
A 24-year old hairdressing student Neil Ahuja of New Delhi was quoted as saying that he had paid the college $5000 for his first semester fees and $2000 for equipment.
"We asked the principal about the academy about the course after the new rules were announced. She told us, 'Don't worry you guys are safe'," Neil was quoted as saying by 'Sydney Morning Herald'.
"They had been pressuring us to pay the $2000 for our hairdressing kit, which we could have got for a few hundred dollars. Otherwise we couldn't do the course. Now we have been left high and dry. I just arrived in Australia and I don't know what to do."
Students and staff were locked out of The Edge Academy, whose registration renewal was under consideration by State Government authorities.
The closure of the privately owned college in Sydney's west is being seen as a result of the recent amended immigration rules announced earlier this month that delinked certain trade occupations including hairdressing and cookery from permanent residency.
The new immigration rules aimed to crackdown on dodgy education providers that were reportedly luring foreign students with guaranteed permanent residency.
Private colleges that were charging students a fee of over $20,000 a year to do courses that cost Australian students only hundreds of dollars, now fear a catastrophe.
The Edge Academy has been a registered training organisation with NSW Vocational Education and Training Accreditation Board (VETAB) since December 2004.
The organisation currently has 66 students studying with 95 pending enrolments. VETAB spokesman said they were told by owners of the academy that reasons for the closure included the changes to Federal Government policy.
"Overseas students are entitled to a full refund of their fees from the Education Services for Overseas Students Assurance Fund," he said, adding "Domestic students can seek restitution from the NSW Office of Fair Trading."
College principal and managing director Judy Gabbert, was unavailable for comment. An India-based education agent Ravi Lochan said, "Most of the closures were not due to any rapid audit but as of voluntary administration who saw less visas meaning less students and hence less profitability."
"The student visas for the diploma students was really tightened in September and they refused to grant visas for this without interviews. Possibly in response to what the Indian Government wanted.
The tightening of the visas also led to less students at some colleges which led to closures (such as Meridian college in Victoria) and no action by the Victorian Govt on them as many in India believe," he said.