More than 75,000 Indian students were undertaking courses in Australia last year, the second largest number of foreigners in Australian colleges and universities.
Why are they coming here from India?
Geoff Maslen at Crikey says:
“Almost 60% of India’s 1.15 billion people are under the age of 25 yet there are only places for 7% of college-age students in post-secondary school institutions.”
The majority now in Australia are in private vocational education colleges “where the main aim on completion appears to be permanent residency (PR)”.
So, why do they want PR in Australia so badly?
A 2006 study asked that question and found that Indian students here are in three main groups:
- Those who originally came to study, discovered that they were part of a ‘culture of migration’ and slowly ‘longed’ to stay
- Student loans are disproportionate to salaries in India
- But a huge group came for PR alone – for a better lifestyle, clean air, good infrastructure, safer society, better public facilities, better job opportunities. These students cannot see themselves profiting from new opportunities being created in India. In addition, having a family member abroad is prestigious.
