Latest news with #studentVisa
News.com.au
07-07-2025
- News.com.au
Southern Cross University faces shock claims of a crisis in one of their early childhood courses
Southern Cross University is facing claims that its 10-month graduate diploma in early childhood education is in crisis. Staff at the university told the ABC's 7.30 program the course, which could bring in $150m in fees for the SCU with the course cost set at $25,000 per student, was 'very low quality'. The institution was reportedly pushing the course 'hard' with an estimated 6000 students enrolled in the past two years, journalist Adele Ferguson reported. 'We've gone from having classes with 200 students in a unit, which was considered a lot, to over 2000 students,' a whistleblower said. The program alleged that the graduate diploma had received massive enrolments from international students, with the course heavily marketed through immigration agents as a pathway to residency. Immigration agent Mark Glazbrook told 7.30 the situation should 'concern every Australian'. 'We have people coming into Australia on student visas that are studying courses just to use that pathway to get permanent residency in Australia and they're looking after our children, and in some cases, they're not attending their classes.' In one claim, the program aired emails showing the university had asked staff to join 'phone sprints' to help find placements for students after the level of enrolment left it struggling to meet demand. 'One email described the situation as a significant crisis, threatening the viability of the faculty, with 400 placements needed by May, and another 2381 by July,' Ferguson reported. The staff who found the most placements for students reportedly received a gift card. The program went on to allege that SCU was placing students in childcare centres that were not meeting minimum national safety standards. The program said regulatory documents had exposed widespread gaps in basic care, including educators not understanding child protection policies, mandatory reporting duties, or even safe sleep and hygiene practices. Abigail Boyd, NSW Greens MLC said the situation struck her as absurd. 'How on earth is it giving those students any kind of good education,' Ms Boyd said. Southern Cross University has been contacted for comment. SCU declined 7.30's interview request and did not respond to detailed questions about enrolment numbers, staff turnover, student distress, or course quality and placement issues. In a statement it said the graduate diploma was a 'rigorous, high-quality program' attracting strong interest, and was fully accredited by the national higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), and the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).
Bloomberg
31-05-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
Rubio's Student Visa Pause Makes No Sense — and Does Real Harm
This is a season of anxiety for international students in the US, who find themselves demonized by the Trump administration as it devises new ways to limit their numbers. The latest tactic came in a diplomatic cable from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to US embassies and consulates abroad, ordering a halt to the student visa interviews necessary to enter the country.
CNA
28-05-2025
- General
- CNA
Foreign students wary of US as Trump presses 'dehumanising' campaign
Donald Trump's expanding crackdown on elite universities is prompting some international students to abandon applications to campuses in the United States and spreading stress and anxiety among those already enrolled. The president has damaged the country's reputation among foreign students, who number around one million, as he pursues a campaign against US universities he views as hindering his Make America Great Again populist agenda. He has blocked Harvard from hosting international scholars in a manoeuvre being challenged legally, targeted non-citizen campus activists for deportation, and most recently, suspended student visa processing across the board. Harvard applied mathematics and economics student Abdullah Shahid Sial, 20, said the Trump administration's campaign against US universities, which the president accused of being hotbeds of liberal bias and antisemitism, had been "dehumanising". "It's really unfortunate that this is the case for 18, 19, and 20-year-olds who came here without any family, and in most cases, haven't been to the US before," said Sial, who is from Pakistan and hopes to be able to return to Harvard next academic year. Sial said he advised acquaintances to have backup plans if US colleges became inaccessible, and that a friend applied to Harvard's law school, as well as Columbia's, and two less reputable British institutions, ultimately opting to go to the UK. "He definitely liked Harvard way more (but) he doesn't want this amount of uncertainty surrounding his education," Sial said. Karl Molden, a Harvard government and classics student from Austria, said Trump's move to block the university from hosting and enrolling foreign students meant he was unsure if he would be able to return after summer vacation. "IN THE DARK" While that decision - affecting some 27 per cent of the overall Harvard population - was paused by a judge pending a hearing Thursday (May 29), the move still threw student plans into chaos. "I kind of figured I would be in the target group of Trump. I'm personally right in the middle of it, so an option for me would be to study abroad ... I have applied to study at Oxford because of all the action taken by Trump," said Molden, 21. "It's just really hard." Harvard academics say they have already started to feel the impact of Trump's vendetta against the school, in feedback from colleagues based outside the United States. "I've already heard this from professors in other countries who say 'we encourage our best students to go to the United States'," Harvard professor Ryan Enos told AFP at a noisy rally against Trump's policies Tuesday, adding, "We wonder if we can tell them that anymore". The halt to visa processing revealed this week is reportedly to allow for more stringent screening of applicants' social media and protest activity. "International students already represent the most tracked and vetted category of nonimmigrants in the United States. It is a poor use of taxpayer dollars," said the NAFSA Association of International Educators non-profit. Trump, meanwhile, continued his assault on Harvard, saying university leaders have "got to behave themselves. "Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper," he said Wednesday in the White House. One Spanish student of politics and statistics, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, told AFP she would not be deterred from pursuing her planned year abroad at Columbia University. "It's scary, because we think to ourselves that all our activity on social networks could be monitored, for example, if we like pro-Palestinian posts or anti-Trump posts. All of that could see us denied a visa," she said. Students due to return to Harvard after the summer break are in limbo pending a ruling on Harvard's exclusion from the foreign student system. "I'm completely in the dark," said 20-year-old Alfred Williamson, a Welsh-Danish physics and government student in his second year at Harvard. "As for my other options, and like all other international students, I'm just clinging on to the hope that Harvard will win this battle against the White House." Sial, the Harvard student from Pakistan, said foreign students like him were "made to fight this battle which no one signed up for." "It's really unfortunate that it's come down to that."
LBCI
28-05-2025
- General
- LBCI
China calls on US to protect rights of foreign students after visa hold
China called for the United States to protect the rights of foreign students on Wednesday, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered a suspension of student visa processing amid a crackdown on universities. "We urge the U.S. side to earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news conference. AFP
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
US halts student visa appointments and plans expanded social media vetting
The Trump administration has ordered US embassies to stop scheduling appointments for students visa and to expand social media vetting of foreigners applying to study at American a copy of a memo sent to diplomatic posts, and viewed by the BBC's US partner CBS News, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the pause in student visa appointments would last "until further guidance is issued".Rubio's message said the temporary pause was in preparation for expanded social media vetting on student and foreign exchange visas, which would have "significant implications" for embassies and administration has in recent months taken steps to revoke a number of visas for pro-Palestinian activist students, as part of what the White House has described as an effort to combat antisemitism on campuses. The state department memo directed US embassies on Tuesday to remove any unfilled appointments from their calendars for students seeking visas, but said those with appointments already scheduled could go message also said the state department was preparing for an "expansion of required social media screening and vetting" applicable to all student visa administration seeks to pull estimated $100m in Harvard fundingForeign students who want to study in the US are usually required to schedule interviews at an American embassy in their home country before asked about student visas, state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday: "We take very seriously the process of vetting who it is that comes into the country, and we're going to continue to do that."The Trump administration has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for universities and moved to deport several students, while revoking thousands of visas for others. Many of these actions have been blocked by the White House has accused some US universities of failing to protect Jewish students on have accused the Trump administration of trying to infringe upon universities' free speech University has been the focal point of President Donald Trump's ire. He also accuses it of flouting a Supreme Court ruling by engaging in discriminatory admissions week, the Trump administration revoked Harvard's ability to enrol international students or host foreign researchers. A federal judge blocked the Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Harvard was handed the penalty for "fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus".
