These Indian students are also bearing the brunt of indulging in fraud at the behest of unscrupulous travel agents who convince them to submit fake financial and educational qualification documents while applying for studies in Australia
Australians are peace-loving and totally above board, and even a stray incident of violence, or an isolated case of fraudulent transaction involving immigrants can backfire or put the Australian authorities off, reported indianexpress.com. Students from Punjab and Haryana are being rejected by Australia, largely due to the violence that broke out between Khalistani activists and pro-India demonstrators at Melbourne’s Federation Square in January-end this year. These Indian students are also bearing the brunt of indulging in fraud at the behest of unscrupulous travel agents who convince them to submit fake financial and educational qualification documents while applying for studies in Australia, indianexpress.com reported.
The Australian government recently extended post-study work visas – from two years to four years for different degrees with a view to filling up the huge shortage of skilled workers in several fields, including health, teaching, agriculture, ICT, etc. The move will benefit a large number of Indian students who are on the verge of completing their studies there but also several fresh aspirants applying under these courses now.
Chitresh Dhawan, Australian education visa expert, was quoted saying that an applicant from Punjab for the nursing course who had scored 9 in each band in Pearson Test of English (PTE), which is accepted by educational institutes around the world, who did well in mandatory reading, writing, listening and speaking skill tests, and who scored 95% marks in medical stream from CBSE faced rejection from the Australian government for study visa and there was no reason mentioned for the rejection
However, experts dealing with “study in Australia” say that fresh students from Punjab and Haryana may not get the benefit of these new rules because the Australian government has taken a tough stand against “student applications” from Punjab and Haryana, particularly post-Covid-19. According to the Australian government, the post-study visas have been extended from two years to four years for select bachelor degrees, three years to five years for select master’s degrees, and four years to six years for all doctoral programmes.
“There is a huge rush from Punjab to Australia, and students are getting visas too, but still visas of several deserving students are being rejected without rhyme or reason – the only apparent reason being they belong to Punjab and Haryana.
Chitresh Dhawan, Australian education visa expert, was quoted saying that an applicant from Punjab for the nursing course who had scored 9 in each band in Pearson Test of English (PTE), which is accepted by educational institutes around the world, who did well in mandatory reading, writing, listening and speaking skill tests, and who scored 95% marks in medical stream from CBSE faced rejection from the Australian government for study visa and there was no reason mentioned for the rejection. Dhawan said one could only imagine why that had happened. Warning students from Punjab and Haryana, he said that in any country where they go either for study, job or any other purpose, they should behave as per the rules of that country.
The visa of this brilliant student was rejected post-Melbourne incident, which had created a bad impression about the students from Punjab, he added. Dhawan said he would raise the issue during meetings with Australia High Commission. The Indian Express story also quoted Dhawan mentioning that several students from Haryana were found indulging in fraud cases. They were found to be submitting fake documents related to financial proofs and educational qualifications, and some unscrupulous travel agents were misleading these students to commit such frauds, which ultimately created a bad impression about them, he added. “Our government should act against such agents who are ruining the future of many a good candidate,” he added.
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