The Very Real Australian Colleges with No Students

Video written by Amy Muller

[jesseberg]

Here I was thinking that that last joke about regular colleges was going to be the ballsiest transition to a Brilliant ad read ever.

[SVProductionsHD]

Canada has a similar problem, way too many private colleges that do nothing except give out diplomas to international students who don't know better or just want the chance to come to Canada and gain residency. They have been described as "puppy mills" by a government minister as the students rarely actually learn much and often they are owned and/or operated by individuals with shady intentions.

[liamnugget]

It’s worth noting that ‘college’ in Australia is not the same as college in the US. The place where you get a Bachelors degree or higher is called a university, these colleges are, well, different

[darkowl]

Although here in Australia, the term "university" is far more prevalent than "college". College is more likely to be used for a secondary school. And TAFE for more skills-based higher education.

[Maxman_]

Yep, the "international student" industry here is a big problem. International students pay full fees and aren't eligible for government-supplied interest-free loans (called HELP loans) or subsidies (CSPs). I think at the university I am at (which unlike the video topic is a very real university) up to 37% of all students are international students, most of them from China. The uni also boasts about how many international students they have in financial reviews, and during COVID actually blamed the lack of international students travelling for a large part of their financial losses.

Another really bad thing is that we're currently in a rental crisis, where rental availability is at an all-time low and rental prices are at record highs. Many domestic students are struggling to find a place to live, while all the universities care about is getting as many full-fee international students through their doors!

[BCJDM]

You could substitute Australia for Canada in this video and it would still be largely applicable

[dingus]

In the early 2010s here in Australia we also had vocational education colleges that used predatory marketing to make an absolute shit tonne of money. They'd set up booths in shopping centres and promise things like a free laptop or iPad if you studied there as well as free food etc. The only thing was, they didn't have any entry requirements and often would just allow students to keep "studying" there indefinitely no matter how badly they were doing, raking in cash from the government and getting these students into lots of debt, and handing out worthless diplomas to people that ended up actually finishing the courses.

[SwetPotato]

I worked part time in a small restaurant, located in a food court during my uni time. Only one guy and I, so 2 out of 6 crews are legit international students. The rest of them signed up to these 'ghost colleges', no attendance needed. Some didn't even require any assignment submissions. Simply pay the fee and you will receive a diploma at the end of the course.

When I just started, I thought they were local Australian because they look young, and they worked full time. (My guess was based on the work limit for international students, we just don't get to work long hours.) Then I realised they couldn't be. They didn't act like my local Australian friends and spoke English with heavy accents, or they simply didn't speak English at all. Later when we knew each other better, they told the story about their working live in Sydney. Basically, these colleges offer the cheapest and longest way to stay in Australia. And after deducting all those college fees, utilities fee, they still earned much more than their peers back in their home countries.

These people I have talked to were mostly from Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Thai. My friend who is Malaysian told me, a food court in the north side of Sydney, was staffed with almost 80% Malaysians at one time. Pretty much all of them were working 5-6 days a week under student visas and went to one of these colleges. She said that's just very common in her social circle.

[callum]

Being an international student in Australia, my perception is that the students themselves are driving this. Yes, some are tricked into it by recruiters, but a huge number (the overwhelming majority I'd wager) are doing this deliberately to use the student visa system to get a working visa that they otherwise wouldn't be eligible for. Even in the "real" international colleges, the students often have no interest in studying at all - just doing the bare minimum to stay enrolled and keep their working rights.

[RILDIGITAL]

It's sad to see how some education institutions exploit both international students and immigration loopholes to their advantage, compromising the learning experience. It's a much-appreciated effort towards bringing light to this issue.

[xliquidflames]

The US doesn't even have the dignity of preying on other countries' students. They do it to their own. I went to this sham of a school that promised to teach me CompTIA, Cisco, and Microsoft certifications. I did leave there with lifetime A+, Network+, and Security+ certs but I never got a CCNA or MCSE like they promised. And then I got a bill for $80, 000 for just 6 months of classes. The bill included things like meals, room & board, and dorm cleaning fees. They didn't have dorms, a cafeteria, or even a vending machine. It was just a single floor of an office building in Jacksonville, Florida. The school was called Fast Train. After I stopped going and was disputing the bill, they got raided by the FBI and shut down for good. The owner was arrested for all kinds of financial crimes. My bill just kind of ...vanished. The school doesn't exist anymore and because I didn't take out any student loans, there's no one to repay.

[Legatus]

HAI showing a lecture hall of the cathedral of learning (definitely not in Australia) and that room gets packed all the time with students. Brings back terrible memories of that room.

[sandonspalding]

I hope we're all enjoying the irony of a video about companies profiting off of legal loopholes which is sponsored by a company profiting off of legal loopholes

[lfraser]

Ya, their all over Canada here as well, it’s basically just an easy way to get a defacto work permit. And here it’s not a recruiter sneaking normal students into these strip mall schools, they advertise it as being a way of being able to work in Canada

[bellakagamine]

As someone living on a WHM visa in Australia, can confirm it's really common to meet others who are on student visas just to work. The thing is, a student visa restricts you to only working something like 20 hours a week, which I think a lot of people don't realize before coming here. A lot of job listings, especially at the entry level, will say things like students need not apply, unrestricted visa required, etc.

[JoannaHolman]

Walking through central Melbourne it makes me so angry seeing the signs for these places. Many of them have grand names that make them sound like large prestigious colleges (things like "the australian national institute of economic studies) but they're located in small run down office blocks. I feel bad for any students coming here actually intending to study who get sucked int one of these

[resolecca]

This is definitely not a new phenomenon, the Australian government said it was cracking down on this in like 2009

[VishalKhopkar]

there are such colleges in the US too - who offer something called "day 1 CPT". If your work authorization on student visa has expired, you can enroll in them and continue working

[maxriley]

Great video Sam.

As an Australian - it is genuinely embarasing that the Federal Government has (on essentially a bipartisan basis) just allowed hundreds of fake universities to be established in random office buildings to enable an exploitable supply of temporary labour for low skilled jobs.

The racket has been going on for years - and completely undermines the prestige of Australia's actual leading universities that are actually really quite good.

Everyone here knows the international education export figures are a massive joke, mainly to disguise the fact that the Australian economy is based around being the world's most efficient mine.

[TheGiggleMasterP]

So now in addition to Nigerian Princes, we also have to worry about emails from an Australian college recruiter? 😅