By Sanu George

A spate of attacks, tough visa norms and denial of permanent residency have caused around 30,000 Indian students, mostly based in Melbourne, to leave Australia in the past year, claims the Federation of Indian Students in Australia (FISA).
The figure is quoted in the latest issue of Indian Student, published from Melbourne, a copy of which is available with IANS. The magazine in its editorial says it appears Australia is no more a favourite destination for Indian students with this huge exodus in a year’s time.
The magazine quoting Gautam Gupta, spokesperson of FISA, said race attacks is one of the major reasons behind the exodus.
“Other significant factors include that there are no jobs and students can’t survive without that. Denying permanent residency to many Indians despite fulfilment of conditions has also been a reason,” says Gupta.
There have been a spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia since last year.
Thiruvallam Bhasi, editor of the magazine who is currently on vacation in Kerala, told IANS that another factor which has become a deterrent for the students is a stronger Australia dollar.
“Even though strengthening of the Australian dollar is welcome for Indians who live there permanently, for students coming from India it has become very expensive,” said Bhasi who launched the magazine four years ago.
“Two years ago, one Australian dollar fetched Rs.30 and yesterday it was around Rs.44. The average fee for a two-year study in Australia currently stands at Aus$36,000 and just look at the difference in the past two years that the Indian student has to bear.”
This new development comes at a time when the latest UN Development Programme report ranks the quality of life in Australia as the second best in the world after Norway.
“The latest figures point out that the education industry in Australia fetches the country close to Aus$18 billion annually and this industry is either the second or the third biggest earner.
“With the Australian dollar strengthening like never before, the cost of education today in the US, the UK or Canada is the same as in Australia and with the denial of permanent residency, the education industry there could suffer heavily,” added Bhasi.
He number of Indian students leaving Australia comes just as Presidents of 15 Canadian universities finished on a seven-day mission to India to woo students from the second fastest growing nation in the world.
It was the biggest mission to India by Canadian educational institutions after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on higher education during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit here in June.
Though more than 150,000 Indian students go abroad for higher education each year, Canada gets only about 3,000 annually.
Thus, Indian students account for a fraction of more than 90,000 foreign students who enrolled in Canadian universities last year.
With foreign students paying more than $15,000 in fees each and collectively pumping more than $6.5 billion into the economy, Canada is looking to a big jump in enrollment from India.
Organized by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), the Canadian education mission  travelled to Pune and Delhi for meetings with educational institutions, the private sector and administrators to usher in new era in ties in this sector between the two nations.

HIV test rules

India has asked all its missions, including the one in Canada not to insist on HIV testing of foreigners, especially foreign students, after it found out that Indian embassies and consulates abroad are displaying “mandatory testing” on their visa forms and websites.  The circular has recently been issued by Joint Secretary (passport and visa division) in the Ministry of External Affairs to all Indian envoys across the world.  Indian missions in the US, UK, Australia, Russia, Canada and the Netherlands are among the defaulters found to have displayed the requirement, despite a Home Ministry decision to discontinue with the HIV testing procedure a few years ago.