Visa rejection compels Indian students to fight for tuition fee refund

Australia, 4th May: Large number of Indian students are fighting to get back their tuition fees after rejection of their Australian student visas by Australian immigration department.

Australian student visas of thousands of Indians were rejected following amendments in the Australian immigration policy. Foreign students, especially those from India, have been lining up to receive refund of their tuition fees following closure of several colleges in Australia due to overseas student attacks crisis.

As per the rules, Australian student visa applicants are required to deposit in advance the tuition fees for pursuing study courses in Australian educational institutes. Outstanding tuition fees could be nearly in millions of dollars.

Taking a serious note of the Indian students’ concerns, Kapil Sibal, India’s Minister for Human Resource Development, has assured to discuss the issue with the Australian immigration department.

Meanwhile, the Australian government has reportedly denied revealing the exact details of the prepaid tuition fees of students whose Australian student visas have been rejected by Australian immigration officials.

The reason cited for non-disclosure of the exact amount of prepaid tuition fees of overseas students by the Rudd government is that the Department of Education investigates claims of students about payments on a case-by-case basis.

However, the reality is that the data concerning Australian visa refusals and prepaid fees is recorded on an electronic database of the Australian government called PRISM (Provider Registration and International Student Management System).

As per Australian law, all course fees should be refunded within a span of 28 days.

Students are asking for refund of their tuition fees from those colleges in Australia that have either been shut down as part of the Australian government’s recent crackdown or are although open but are facing severe financial crisis following plunge in overseas students’ enrolments.

The recent change in Australian immigration policies has put a big question mark on the fate of nearly 40,000 foreign students who were likely to gain Australian permanent residency.

It may be worth mentioned that most of the vocational trades like welding, plumbing, and carpentry have been removed from the skills priority list resulting in making it difficult for overseas students to gain Australian student visas and permanent residency in Australia.