Students feel high price to study

Students feel high price to study | NEWS.com.au By Mark Dunn and Nick Higginbottom May 10, 2008 12:12am Article from: Herald Sun Font size: + - Send this article: Print Email INDIANS are being warned that Melbourne is unsafe, after a series of attacks on students from the sub-continent. The international students swarming into this and other state capitals are paying a price much higher than their education fees, with 40 dying in less than a year. The stabbing of student taxi driver Jalvinder Singh two weeks ago has led to warnings by the Indian press that racist attacks in Melbourne are on the rise. Boarding home fires, car crashes, murders and drownings are taking their toll, with 17 foreign students dying in Victoria in the past year. A Herald Sun investigation into the booming $12.6 billion foreign student industry found: MORE cash-strapped foreign students in cramped Melbourne boarding homes will die unless laws are toughened and rogue landlords pulled up, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade says. OF 370,000 foreign students in Australia, 135,000 are in Melbourne. About 20,900 obtained permanent residency last year after graduating - almost triple the 2004 total - with many focusing on courses that can earn residency points. A GROUP of Melbourne landlords, including one man who owns 70 houses, are cashing in, with some charging weekly rates of $85 a head when up to 14 students live in one house. SOME western suburbs landlords are charging unwitting students internet fees and $5 a week to park in the street. STATE authorities have closed eight private training schools in Melbourne in the past three years for failing to meet educational standards. Students claim several colleges have woeful computer or book stocks. UP to 40 per cent of student fees at some institutions are spent on student-recruitment promotions. THOUSANDS are driving cabs or doing $5-an-hour menial jobs to afford their education. The Times of India this year warned Indians to think twice about moving to Australia. Readers agreed on the paper's website, one calling Australia "the most racist country in the developed world". Others expressed fear over plans to study in Melbourne. "It's in their blood. Aussies were, are and will be bloody racist," said one forum contributor. Federation of Indian Students of Australia secretary Gautam Gupta said racism was rampant. He had met eight students in the past month who had been assaulted in Melbourne, two of whom were beaten so seriously they returned home in fear. On top of safety issues, he said a number of colleges or training companies were failing to provide decent education. "Sometimes there are no teachers, sometimes there have been only three computers for a class of 50," he said. Foreign students packed in unregistered rooming houses are a major concern. Three Indians killed in a fire in Footscray in January were sharing mattresses when their computer allegedly sparked the blaze. But, with overloaded electrical systems and poor fire safety features, there were warnings before the tragedy. A Burwood property containing 14 beds for foreign students burnt down last year. By the next day, nine of the beds had disappeared. Property agents were marketing suburban homes near universities as ideal "mum and dad" investments that could be packed with students, MFB investigator Rod East said. Victoria University housing officer Hean Chang agreed landlords were exploiting students. "A four-bedroom house in Sunshine will normally rent for about $270 but a landlord will be asking students to pay $130 each, that means $520 for the property," she said. Opposition spokesman for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship, Nicholas Kotsiras, said: "I would be greatly concerned, as should be all Victorians, if Melbourne's international reputation was being dragged down by the inaction and neglect of the Brumby Government."