Attacks on Indian students hit Australia`s education industry

Natasha Chaku
Melbourne, Feb 13 (PTI) Overseas student enrolments in
Australian universities have taken a serious dive following a
spate of attacks on Indian students here and the introduction
of new amended immigration programme by the government.
There are now calls for a body to represent the
interests of the entire private education sector of Australia
to help repair the damage.
Andrew Smith, from the Australian Council for Private
Education and Training, said there has been a drop of between
40 and 50 per cent in applications from South Asian countries,
particularly India, ABC report said Saturday.
"We've seen some fall away from the China market which
is another key market but we are also seeing some increases in
other markets and we expected over the course of this year,
numbers overall will actually probably hold about the same,"
he said
"There just won't be anything like the rates of growth
we've experienced in recent years," he said.
However, he said Government's changes to the skilled
migration program are likely stunt growth in the education
market. "There was a further suite of changes announced last
week," he said. MORE PTI