Migration Help
4th February 2010, 02:19 PM
Guy Healy
From: The Australian
February 03, 2010
UNIVERSITIES and colleges should tighten up oversight of their offshore agents to ensure they aren't caught up in "organised migration fraud", Navitas chief executive Rod Jones warned this week.
"There's a need to tighten up their relationships with their agents to ensure agents are carrying out student checks at acceptable levels," he said.
Mr Jones - whose company feeds tens of thousands of overseas students to 14 universities - made the comments after it was revealed that 39 per cent of student visa fraud detected last year targeted universities.
In a revelation that has been met with a muted response from universities, higher education was identified as the Australian education sector most highly targeted by fraudsters until mid-2008.
Fifty-three per cent of student visa fraud targeted universities in the 12 months to mid-2008, says an Ernst & Young report prepared for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, and obtained by the HES under Freedom of Information laws.
"Those figures did surprise me but I am quite certain that's not a reflection of what happens with us," Mr Jones told the HES.
The report - which comes as Britain suspends applications from north Indian students - has implications for government moves to place a greater legal onus on education providers for the behaviour of their offshore agents.
The confidential E&Y report reveals increased levels of "organised migration fraud through offshore migration and education agents".
It says bogus students were making up fictitious bank branches for their loan documentation, and using photographic software to create student IDs to thwart English language testing requirements, a critical factor in getting a student visa.
Mr Jones said under the Education Services for Overseas Students act, education institutions were responsible for the actions of their agents.
Migration Institute of Australia chief executive Maurene Horder said only agents registered by Australia's Migration Agents Registration Authority should be allowed to prepare applications such as student e-visas.
SOURCE (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/migration-fraud-alert/story-e6frgcjx-1225826091679)
MH
From: The Australian
February 03, 2010
UNIVERSITIES and colleges should tighten up oversight of their offshore agents to ensure they aren't caught up in "organised migration fraud", Navitas chief executive Rod Jones warned this week.
"There's a need to tighten up their relationships with their agents to ensure agents are carrying out student checks at acceptable levels," he said.
Mr Jones - whose company feeds tens of thousands of overseas students to 14 universities - made the comments after it was revealed that 39 per cent of student visa fraud detected last year targeted universities.
In a revelation that has been met with a muted response from universities, higher education was identified as the Australian education sector most highly targeted by fraudsters until mid-2008.
Fifty-three per cent of student visa fraud targeted universities in the 12 months to mid-2008, says an Ernst & Young report prepared for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, and obtained by the HES under Freedom of Information laws.
"Those figures did surprise me but I am quite certain that's not a reflection of what happens with us," Mr Jones told the HES.
The report - which comes as Britain suspends applications from north Indian students - has implications for government moves to place a greater legal onus on education providers for the behaviour of their offshore agents.
The confidential E&Y report reveals increased levels of "organised migration fraud through offshore migration and education agents".
It says bogus students were making up fictitious bank branches for their loan documentation, and using photographic software to create student IDs to thwart English language testing requirements, a critical factor in getting a student visa.
Mr Jones said under the Education Services for Overseas Students act, education institutions were responsible for the actions of their agents.
Migration Institute of Australia chief executive Maurene Horder said only agents registered by Australia's Migration Agents Registration Authority should be allowed to prepare applications such as student e-visas.
SOURCE (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/migration-fraud-alert/story-e6frgcjx-1225826091679)
MH