NEWS campusreview. com. au
FEE-HELP scrutiny heaped on
National body’ s announcement of an audit follows Labor’ s request.
Offshore surge
In 2014, international enrolment and commencements bounced back strongly from recent declines.
The Australian National Audit Office( ANAO) has announced that it will scrutinise the VET FEE-HELP scheme, following a request by the federal opposition. VET FEE-HELP is set up to help eligible students studying higher-level VET qualifications pay their tuition fees. But Labor Senator Kim Carr, along with MP Sharon Bird – who wrote to the auditor-general’ s office requesting the audit – have expressed concerns that substandard providers are using the scheme to attract students.
In a recent statement, Bird said she had grown concerned following a“ significant number of media, industry and ASQA reports on unscrupulous behaviour and the misuse of VET FEE-HELP in the VET sector”.
In his response to Labor’ s request – posted on Twitter by Carr – Auditor-General Ian McPhee said he expected the audit would assess“ the administration by the Department of Education of VET FEE-HELP in accordance with the relevant legislation and government policy”.
“ This would include the department’ s management of VET FEE-HELP and approved providers – including issues associated with vulnerable students,” he wrote.
Following the announcement of the audit – due to take place in the third quarter of this year – Carr said,“ VET FEE-HELP should not be a pot of money that dodgy operators use to lure and exploit our youth.”
“ Quality and equity must always be the overriding concerns,” he added.
Bird said she believed it was imperative that taxpayer funds were“ spent on quality training and that students are not incurring debts for poor-quality or unsuitable courses”.
A broad Senate inquiry into the private education sector is already under way. Labor and the Greens established it late last year and it is examining: private sector access to public funds; regulatory regimes; the VET FEE-HELP scheme; the overall quality of education provided; associated learning requirements; and graduate outcomes for those completing training with private providers.
That inquiry will also scrutinise marketing and promotional techniques both private providers and third-party brokers employ, incidents of non-compliance with regulatory frameworks and political donations from private providers. ■
The depreciation of the Australian dollar and stability around student visa policy have been credited for a rise in the growth rate of international student enrolments and commencements.
The latest data released by the Department of Education and Training has revealed total enrolments of international students in 2014 was up almost 64,000 from the previous year, to 583,714 – a growth rate of 12.3 per cent.
Commencements also grew, jumping 17.4 per cent, from 296,100 in 2013 to 347,591 in 2014.
The good news was spread across the sector; VET enrolments and commencements bounced back from negative growth in 2013 to post 11.4 per cent and 19.8 per cent increases, respectively, in 2014. English language-intensive courses for overseas students( ELICOS) and non-award schools also recorded encouraging growth.
International Education Association of Australia president Brett Blacker welcomed the positive growth figures, which were underpinned by large increases in the number of students coming from India and China.
Chinese students made up more than a quarter of international enrolments in 2014, whilst the number of Indian enrolments – which jumped 29.3 per cent in 2014 – made up almost 11 per cent of the total.
“ The depreciation of the Australian dollar, stability of the Australian student visa policy, and maturing and expansion of the Streamlined Visa Program( SVP) have all supported the positive performance, in contrast to the 2010‘ perfect storm’, whereby those factors, in addition to concerns of student safety, worked against the sector,” Blacker said.“ In addition to favourable market conditions, factors stemming from the maturing of the SVP, [ such as ] increased business partner arrangements and expansion of access to SVP for a broader group of vocational institutions, have supported the 12-month [ rebound ] and impressive growth rates.”
Blacker said government initiatives such as international missions into India led by the trade minister, Andrew Robb,“ should support continued positive performance across all sectors,” he said.“ At this point, there is no reason to consider that the growth will not continue into 2015.” ■
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