Where is Krishna? Australia is punching above its weight!

I watched in a side story of ABC lateline yesterday that Indian foreign minister S M Krishna is in Australia. I saw him on tele coming to Melbourne and received by Victorian premier. Its humiliating in itself! its just like Stephen Smith is been received by CM of Kerala! Moreover Krishna is seen nowhere in today's Australian media - print and online. I am surprised!

What kind of politics is this?

Is Australia is punching above its weight? ..delebarately ignoring Indian FM, who came here in the wake of alleged racial attacks on Indian students? It was Krishna who acted decisively in those events - directing his ambassador to convene a press meet in Vic. I think, Aus is giving back to him. But this is bad politics.. arrogant as always Aus is portrayed internationally.. Aus is confirming its stereotypical status by being so arrogant.. no much difference between Aus and China in this regard, I think (remembering the Hu case).

Austalian Government should honor their promises!

This is the comment I sent to "The Australian" about their article "Education debacle to cost us badly" . As usual, I do not know whether it will get published! But here it is in my blog:

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What International students going through (in Australia) is really horrible. First they were shown Permanent Residency carrot when abroad. It was Australian govt that linked certain courses to PR points, not migration agents. Students are lured into join those programs by paying huge fees and there by assuring huge tax revenue to Australian govt. When they came here, they got substandard education and was beaten up in the streets. Then they protested. Now, the govt is going to de-link PR points from those courses. Students spent 40000 AUD over two years, they got no quality education and now no PR. It's going to be state supported cheating scam. There should be a policy whereby Aust govt honor their liking of PR points to certain courses for the whole tenure of those courses. I mean, if there is a link between a course and PR points when a student join a course, it should stay there for that student till he/she finishes the course. Otherwise, it is cheating and rip off. What we will be doing is to lure international students to certain courses by showing PR carrot and when they pass the course, revoke it and send them back home with nothing. Otherwise govt shouldn't link any course with PR points at all.

The Pragmatic (and the real) Aussie view abt Australian Education Industry - It's Brain Gain!

Another post from the same forum gives us a real pragmatic Australian view abt Australian education industry. This is why Australia still welcome international students!

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OpEd:

27 Jul 2009 11:04:30am

For those who are critical of the international education industry that Australia has developed, I ask, how will we replace the $15 billion in foreign earnings, and the 10s of thousands of jobs that have been created?

The issue is not that Australia provides education services that are in demand from international students, but that there are so many, largely private colleges that have sprung up offering doggy certificates, and linked in with migration scams.

This is where the cleanup needs to take place.

With regard to gradauates applying for their residency in Australia, my feeling is if these people have the right kinds of skills and meet all the criteria for migration, then they should be able to apply for migration to Australia. What Australia ends up with is young people in the prime of their working life, with an Australian education, all at no expense to the Australia tax payer.

I think we need to be careful that we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Julia Gillard, Dyp PM, AUS on recent attacks on Indian Students

A creative suggestion to improve safety of Indian students in Australia

This is the suggestion I send today to the High Commission of India in Australia as a response to the recent violent attacks on Indian students.
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To

Mrs. Sujatha Singh
High Commissioner of India
Canberra, Australia

Sub: A creative suggestion to improve safety of Indian students in Australia - Student Settlement Services by Australian Universities.

Madam,

I represent prestigious Rajagiri group of educational institutions Kochi, Kerala, India in Australia and heads it Australian operations as the Director of “Rajagiri Australia” (www.rajagiri.com.au). Rajagiri Australia has initiated twinning programs between Rajagiri, Kochi and major Australian universities and also serves as student agent for those Australian universities in India and Australia. In the wake the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia, I got the following suggestions to make to improve safety of Indian students in Australia.

1. Insist Australian Universities to provide Student Settlement and safety-net service.

The major problem of students coming to Australia is that they don’t get any other help from universities than the CoE (Confirmation of Enrolment) even after paying heavy fees. They just arrive in airport and don’t know where to go, where to settle and practically no contacts/references. In such desperation, they end up in unsafe suburbs/homes and pushed to take unsafe works and work habits, which eventually make them vulnerable targets.

The solution is to give them hospitality, settlement and reference services as they arrive to Australia. In theory the universities claim that they got these services. But in practice they just don’t have this for many reasons, like – they don’t set apart enough funds and plans for these services, they don’t have the expertise in settlement services, they simply cannot give reference services.

Agencies those have got expertise in these areas can easily provide these services. “Rajagiri Australia” is experimenting this kind of services to students coming through us in our own way. That is to provide students with airport pickup, shared accommodation facilities, availability of ongoing support through an office (presently our Melbourne office) and reference services (provide a network of people who can contact and trust).

Being a student myself, I have gone through all the troubles of student life in Australia. That is why I initiated this service. We can do it because we don’t have much monetary considerations as we are Catholic priests’ group and plan to set apart a big chunk of commission amount we get from Aus Universities(in recruiting students as an agent) to these services. But in general (for all other agencies), this is not possible. Because the commission amount is meant only for recruitment services and not enough/not meant for other additional services.

So, the suggestion is to encourage universities to provide these settlement services – for their students - which include airport pickup, accommodation services, agent office support, reference services - though their “authorized agents”. Universities should set apart a fixed amount (say 5% of first year fee) towards these services on the top of the commission to those agents. This will enable those agents to provide the above services to students.


2. Rate Australian universities and Settlement agencies to enforce higher safely for Indian students.

The Indian government should introduce separate rating/accreditation system for Australian universities and the proposed student settlement agents. Universities who provide this “Settlement services” should be given higher safely ratings by India government. It will provide better advice to prospective students to Australia. India government also shall accredit “Settlement” agencies after scrutiny.

This will give ample impetus to Australian Universities to adopt Settlement services as part of their student recruitment process and their Settlement agencies to perform well to give effective services to their student customers.

I live in Canberra. I will be very happy to give any further inputs regarding this suggestion by coming to your office. Please feel free to contact me.

With regards,

Fr Jaison Paul Mulerikkal CMI
RAJAGIRI AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
ABN: 85 128 322 761
Web: www.rajagiri.com.au