‘80 per cent drop in Indian students going to Australia’

‘80 per cent drop in Indian students going to Australia’

Chandigarh: In a significant admission, Australian High Commissioner to India Peter Varghese Friday said there had been a “large reduction” in the number of Indian students going to Australia in the recent months. The year-on-year decrease was around 80 per cent, he said.

Varghese, however, cautioned that this fall could not be linked to the racial attacks against Indians and that it was mainly due to change in immigration policies. "The attacks were unfortunate and I condemn them. Some attacks could be racial and we do not say there were not. But in many incidents the attacks were not racial...," he said.

He said that the authorities had taken a series of steps, including increasing the police patrolling and briefing Indian students, in a bid to check the attacks on foreign students.

Varghese also saud that "unlike earlier generation, the present students are going for vocational programmes that lead to permanent residency." He also said Australia was going to celebrate the year 2012 as Special Promotion of Australia