Oz to track Indian students' intake;says it is 'safe' for them

Natasha Chaku
Melbourne, Jan 14 (PTI) Australia on Thursday said it
will closely monitor Indian students' intake in the new
academic year following a slew of attacks on the community
that has affected the billion-dollar education industry here,
even as it insisted it remains a "safe" destination to pursue
studies.
"Obviously we are going to track the number of students
coming to this country, including Indian students, as we are
moving into the new academic year," Deputy Prime Minister of
Australia Julia Gillard said.
She said it was important that students had accurate
information when deciding whether to study in Australia.
"I can understand that if you were a family in India and
you were sending your young person to some other country that
you would be very, very focussed on how safe they are going to
be when they were there," she was quoted as saying by the
media here.
"This is why we have to try and get the message through
that overwhelmingly Australia is a very safe place," Gillard
said.
She said the government had taken steps to ensure
Australia continued to offer quality education to
international students.
Gillard said she was not prepared to speculate at this
stage of the academic year as to what might be student number.
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