Back in May 2019 we posted an education agent alert on India-based agency Overseas Education and Career Consultants (OECC). The post drew on allegations against the agency reported in the Australian media.
The allegations against OECC were embedded in a bigger story alleging that Australian Universities were waiving minimum English requirements for international students in order to ramp up enrollment numbers. Murdoch University’s international student practices were a particular focus for the media reporting in 2019.
Murdoch University subsequently sued one of its academics who went public with allegations that “Indian students with inadequate English were being ‘set up for failure’ and were failing courses in higher than normal numbers”. The law suit was later dropped.
In late December 2019 The Times of India newspaper reported that a senior government official in Ludhiana District had “cancelled the licence of renowned immigration consultant firm M/S Overseas Education & Career Consultants India Pvt Ltd after they were found to be committing fraud with people on the pretext of sending them abroad.”
On 10 January Murdoch University confirmed that it had terminated its contract with OECC. A spokesman for the Aussie uni advised The Australian that the university “is no longer associated with [OECC]” and “has provided OECC with notification of the termination of its contract”.
The National Code
Australia’s National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 imposes clear obligations on Australian educational institutions when they become aware that an agent is engaging in false or misleading recruitment practices:
Does your institution work with education agents?
If your institution is working with education agents it is critical that you have strong systems in place to:
- support the professionalism of your education agents
- know when there is a serious incident, and
- respond quickly to protect your students and brand.
AgentBee supports educational institutions around the world to do all three.