The cancellation of MIC’s license must have crushed the extremely faulty notion of a lot of our parents and their children vying to go abroad for higher studies that everything is hunky dory in a foreign land. In fact, nothing could have been further from the truth. There are many unscrupulous colleges abroad that are waiting to milk money from unsuspecting international students and Nepalis in their sometimes inexplicable passion to land up in a foreign shore by any imaginable means are easy prey.
While it’s good that the Australian government is showing seriousness about coming down heavily on such colleges, it is also the parents’ and the students’ responsibility to validate the authenticity of the college or the university that they are applying to. And this is only possible when they give up their false belief that everything foreign is worth the money’s worth. However, if the student’s intention is simply to use a college admission as a passport to settling down permanently in the foreign country, then there is nothing that we can say in their defense except calling upon the embassies to introduce stricter screening procedures.
Talking of Australia particularly, which is one of the top destinations for higher studies for Nepali students, it’s imperative that it continuously refines and upgrades its education sector for its stakes are very high. Education happens to be Australia’s third-largest export industry and more than 400,000 international students enrolled in Australian universities and colleges last year giving the country over $15 billion in revenue.
In the context of Nepal, any talk of foreign education cannot be complete without mentioning educational consultancies, which has mushroomed in every nook and cranny of the country. Since every other student seems to avail their services, the government must develop mechanisms to bring them under its ambit so that they, on the one hand, do not crush the dreams of genuine students while, on the other hand, those with absolutely no intention of studying do not use them as a facilitator to sneak abroad.
Related story
Nepali students going abroad for studies took Rs 1.25 trillion...
