It forms part of the government’s controversial crackdown on so-called “ghost colleges” – where providers took advantage of a former loophole in Australia’s visa system to bring bogus international students into the country to work. Such providers did not actively provide either training or assessments for students.

Some 36 unnamed CRICOS-registered providers were visited without prior warning last week as part of a government probe into poor practice in the sector, the Australian Skills Quality Authority told The PIE News.

“All visits were conducted by identified authorised officers utilising monitoring powers under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act). None of the providers linked to this activity received an immediate closure notice. The purpose of the visits was to inform further regulatory activity,” ASQA clarified.

It followed 150 announced and unannounced site visits by the watchdog between October 2023 and June 2024.

“ASQA made 103 sanction decisions to either cancel registration or reject applications for renewal of registration (83) or suspend registration (20) in 2023-24,” it said.

“These decisions were taken with respect to 68 providers. ASQA also made 63 sanction decisions against CRICOS providers to either cancel registration or reject applications for renewal of registration (52) or suspend registration (11). These decisions were taken with respect to 33 providers.”

Meanwhile, the watchdog is currently investigating 210 “serious matters” at 145 providers where the concern relates to delivering education or training to international students of which a number of these investigations relate to allegations of fraud and visa or migration risks.

It comes as the sector has raised some serious questions over ASQA’s crackdown on “ghost colleges” after skills minister Andrew Giles proudly announced the axing of 150 such colleges back in August.

At the time, Giles commented: “The Albanese Government is calling time on the rorts and loopholes that have plagued the VET sector for far too long under the former Liberal and National government. We’ve weeded out and shut down over 150 dormant operators, and 140 more have been given a yellow card.”

However, sector consultant Clare Field has since conducted her own research, suggesting that many of these ‘lapsed’ providers are trusted names who have “decided for a variety of reasons not to continue operating as an RTO”.

Shadow education minister Sarah Henderson is the latest to hit out at Giles for the misleading rhetoric.

“The only problem for this hapless minister is according to experts the list of so called ‘ghost colleges’ he has ‘weeded out’ includes Ausgrid, the Alzheimer’s Association of Queensland, the Australian Medical Association, and the Australian College of Nursing, 12 schools and Fiji’s highly regarded University of the South Pacific,” said Henderson on September 16.

The only problem for this hapless minister is according to experts the list of so called ‘ghost colleges’ he has ‘weeded out’

Sarah Henderson, shadow education minister

Henderson reiterated that these organisations simply ceased providing vocational courses, and could not be classed as ghost colleges.

Henderson blasted Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party for its proposed defacto cap on international student numbers from 2025, and the “deeply concerning” methodology which she said has led to sanctioned VET providers allocated commencements while reputable providers suffer.

“At least 11 sanctioned vocational colleges were allotted foreign student places for next year by the Albanese Government at the same time as many of our world-leading training providers are confronting massive cuts threatening their viability,” said Henderson.

“On the back of these revelations experts and the sector have raised the prospect that the methodology Labor may have applied to student caps appears to be totally automated.

“This means colleges which have kept student numbers at sustainable levels to ensure high-quality training are being punished while the small minority of providers which have inflated numbers to maximise profits are being rewarded.”

If approved, the plans would cap international student enrolments for the year at a total of 270,000 – with VET providers concerned that their “emotionally devastating” caps, limited to a total of 95,000 – could all but decimate the sector.