The Very Real Australian Colleges with No Students

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  • Опубліковано 30 січ 2024
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    Video written by Amy Muller
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 583

  • @jesseberg3271
    @jesseberg3271 4 місяці тому +2943

    Here I was thinking that that last joke about regular colleges was going to be the ballsiest transition to a Brilliant ad read ever.

    • @TheGbelcher
      @TheGbelcher 4 місяці тому +27

      😂😂😂

    • @snakegodtod164
      @snakegodtod164 4 місяці тому +41

      same

    • @jkivil3587
      @jkivil3587 4 місяці тому +174

      I don't have the words to describe my disappointment at that exact moment.
      But YOU can develop your vocabulary by signing up at...

    • @JosephDickson
      @JosephDickson 4 місяці тому +33

      I was expecting an ad for Brilliant.

    • @zacharysilver911
      @zacharysilver911 4 місяці тому +35

      I was expecting a Skillshare ad lmao

  • @liam6nugget
    @liam6nugget 4 місяці тому +606

    It’s worth noting that ‘college’ in Australia is not the same as college in the US. The place where you get a Bachelors degree or higher is called a university, these colleges are, well, different

    • @illiiilli24601
      @illiiilli24601 3 місяці тому +58

      Usually colleges are the names of either school accommodation, or the equivalent of a community college (but TAFE is also similar)

    • @declansb641
      @declansb641 3 місяці тому +59

      Or a secondary school, or really any educational institution puts "college" there

    • @illiiilli24601
      @illiiilli24601 3 місяці тому +2

      @@declansb641 true

    • @SwetPotato
      @SwetPotato 3 місяці тому

      Yeah, these colleges give out diplomas or training certificates only. They are not the equivalent of universities.

    • @nicksmith7989
      @nicksmith7989 3 місяці тому +53

      Rule of thumb in Australia is that if it includes the word college, and it’s not a high school, it’s largely a scam. Every reputable place of tertiary education in the country, is a university. There isn’t a single reputable tertiary place of study that uses the word college.

  • @SVProductionsHD
    @SVProductionsHD 4 місяці тому +1420

    Canada has a similar problem, way too many private colleges that do nothing except give out diplomas to international students who don't know better or just want the chance to come to Canada and gain residency. They have been described as "puppy mills" by a government minister as the students rarely actually learn much and often they are owned and/or operated by individuals with shady intentions.

    • @iterativeimprovements1713
      @iterativeimprovements1713 4 місяці тому +88

      They actually *just* passed legislature that is supposed to absolutely close that loophole with the most recent immigration change (happened within the last 2 weeks)

    • @longiusaescius2537
      @longiusaescius2537 4 місяці тому +3

      @CurlyVeggie not covering Canada in concrete for infinite migrants? Yikes!

    • @longiusaescius2537
      @longiusaescius2537 4 місяці тому

      @iterativeimprovements1713 (nothing will change)

    • @neoxyte
      @neoxyte 4 місяці тому +37

      Did you see the percentage of international students in Canada to total population? It's something like 4% and rising. These diploma mills are just funneling tim Horton employees.

    • @anushagr14
      @anushagr14 4 місяці тому

      ​@@longiusaescius2537The entire canada is made of immigrants

  • @BCJDM
    @BCJDM 4 місяці тому +652

    You could substitute Australia for Canada in this video and it would still be largely applicable

    • @iterativeimprovements1713
      @iterativeimprovements1713 4 місяці тому +24

      Except the government allegedly just shut this down.
      Won't fix the problem overnight, but it sounds like we've stopped the unreasonable flow of people going to strip mall colleges.

    • @bshaw8175
      @bshaw8175 4 місяці тому +7

      as cold australia and hot canada

    • @ethereel6268
      @ethereel6268 4 місяці тому +6

      UK too, but we call them bogus colleges.

    • @teelo12000
      @teelo12000 4 місяці тому +5

      NZ has this problem too, except nobody is doing anything to stop them.

    • @ender7278
      @ender7278 4 місяці тому +8

      You could substitute Australia for Canada in most videos and it would still be largely applicable.

  • @darkowl9
    @darkowl9 4 місяці тому +75

    Although here in Australia, the term "university" is far more prevalent than "college". College is more likely to be used for a secondary school. And TAFE for more skills-based higher education.

    • @jamesmattila-hine1133
      @jamesmattila-hine1133 4 місяці тому +3

      Thank you it was bothering me the entire video

    • @stephengentle2815
      @stephengentle2815 3 місяці тому +12

      Yeah, basically - but the difference is that 'University' is a strongly regulated term here. There are only 37 public and 4 private universities in Australia, and it would be illegal for any other company or organisation to sell courses claiming to be a university. So a lot of these (usually dodgy, but also more some of the more legitimate) vocational education providers use words like 'College', 'Institute' or 'Academy' in their names because those aren't regulated.

    • @acewickhamyoshi8330
      @acewickhamyoshi8330 3 місяці тому

      at the dawn of the internet , at Queensland University ,,we were given the task of researching Peter Duttons links to crime gangs ,,
      well,, its 30 years later ,, the expansion of universities doing coastal swamp research ,, &
      bird migrations helped the research on International drug crime ,, these dodgy colleges were zombie businesses .. /
      for peter duttons crime@@stephengentle2815

  • @Maxman013_
    @Maxman013_ 4 місяці тому +629

    Yep, the "international student" industry here is a big problem. International students pay full fees and aren't eligible for government-supplied interest-free loans (called HELP loans) or subsidies (CSPs). I think at the university I am at (which unlike the video topic is a very real university) up to 37% of all students are international students, most of them from China. The uni also boasts about how many international students they have in financial reviews, and during COVID actually blamed the lack of international students travelling for a large part of their financial losses.
    Another really bad thing is that we're currently in a rental crisis, where rental availability is at an all-time low and rental prices are at record highs. Many domestic students are struggling to find a place to live, while all the universities care about is getting as many full-fee international students through their doors!

    • @antontsau
      @antontsau 4 місяці тому

      welcome to the real world, Neo! Where government wasted the whole year budget in 2021 plus, at the same time, destroyed half of economy. So mortgage rate is 6% and rental price corresponds to this. No one sends us money from Mars, thats we are who have to pay back all these wasted resources.

    • @greenstarfish
      @greenstarfish 4 місяці тому +14

      Sounds like a very similar housing crisis that we're experiencing over here in the Netherlands, although I'm pretty sure it's even worse here.

    • @taro7145
      @taro7145 4 місяці тому

      Which uni?

    • @nope110
      @nope110 4 місяці тому +8

      This is also true in the UK, the housing situation in my city is terrible, and my year has been described to me as “painfully over subscribed” since I started during Covid and they really really took advantage of that

    • @landlordize
      @landlordize 4 місяці тому +30

      Wouldnt it be more appropriate to blame those who caused the housing crisis rather than a bunch of students who just need a small apartment?

  • @dingus153
    @dingus153 4 місяці тому +100

    In the early 2010s here in Australia we also had vocational education colleges that used predatory marketing to make an absolute shit tonne of money. They'd set up booths in shopping centres and promise things like a free laptop or iPad if you studied there as well as free food etc. The only thing was, they didn't have any entry requirements and often would just allow students to keep "studying" there indefinitely no matter how badly they were doing, raking in cash from the government and getting these students into lots of debt, and handing out worthless diplomas to people that ended up actually finishing the courses.

    • @clazza65
      @clazza65 4 місяці тому +3

      A lot ended up in Health care.

    • @linus1703
      @linus1703 3 місяці тому +12

      That was a horrific time, they even targetted 16 year olds saying hey do you want to quit school and do this course. I remember calling one up once and legitimately wanting to learn and asking what the difference between the software development vs programming course was and she said oh with one you get an alienware laptop the other a dell.

  • @sandonspalding2439
    @sandonspalding2439 4 місяці тому +222

    I hope we're all enjoying the irony of a video about companies profiting off of legal loopholes which is sponsored by a company profiting off of legal loopholes

    • @shashankmahalingam5254
      @shashankmahalingam5254 4 місяці тому +18

      That would make Half as Interesting a company profiting off of a company profiting off of legal loopholes.

    • @hasanmuttaqin464
      @hasanmuttaqin464 4 місяці тому +1

      is brilliant really profiting from legal loopholes? can you elaborate further, i'm genuinely curious

    • @shashankmahalingam5254
      @shashankmahalingam5254 4 місяці тому

      @@hasanmuttaqin464 The sponsor of this video is Incogni. Big internet companies have the right to take your data, but they must delete it if you request them to. But people are too lazy to do this, so Incogni basically sends the requests for you in exchange for payment. Not necessarily bad, but technically a legal loophole.

    • @soundscape26
      @soundscape26 4 місяці тому +23

      @@hasanmuttaqin464 The sponsor is Incogni, not Brilliant.

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 4 місяці тому

      Well yah But I hart Gummy bears ommnoommm

  • @SwetPotato
    @SwetPotato 3 місяці тому +27

    I worked part time in a small restaurant, located in a food court during my uni time. Only one guy and I, so 2 out of 6 crews are legit international students. The rest of them signed up to these 'ghost colleges', no attendance needed. Some didn't even require any assignment submissions. Simply pay the fee and you will receive a diploma at the end of the course.
    When I just started, I thought they were local Australian because they look young, and they worked full time. (My guess was based on the work limit for international students, we just don't get to work long hours.) Then I realised they couldn't be. They didn't act like my local Australian friends and spoke English with heavy accents, or they simply didn't speak English at all. Later when we knew each other better, they told the story about their working live in Sydney. Basically, these colleges offer the cheapest and longest way to stay in Australia. And after deducting all those college fees, utilities fee, they still earned much more than their peers back in their home countries.
    These people I have talked to were mostly from Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Thai. My friend who is Malaysian told me, a food court in the north side of Sydney, was staffed with almost 80% Malaysians at one time. Pretty much all of them were working 5-6 days a week under student visas and went to one of these colleges. She said that's just very common in her social circle.

    • @cameronstuart1397
      @cameronstuart1397 2 місяці тому

      And we're currently is a housing crisis. We're importing hundreds of thousands of people, and we're not building anywhere near houses to put them in, let alone regular population growth. It's like our leaders have been asleep at the wheel for the last 10 years.

  • @JoannaHolman
    @JoannaHolman 4 місяці тому +53

    Walking through central Melbourne it makes me so angry seeing the signs for these places. Many of them have grand names that make them sound like large prestigious colleges (things like "the australian national institute of economic studies) but they're located in small run down office blocks. I feel bad for any students coming here actually intending to study who get sucked int one of these

    • @uziquattro1083
      @uziquattro1083 12 днів тому

      They don't get sucked in though, they go in knowing it's a cheap rort that opens up the ability to work using the visa which is what a lot of the international students want..

  • @callum9999
    @callum9999 4 місяці тому +56

    Being an international student in Australia, my perception is that the students themselves are driving this. Yes, some are tricked into it by recruiters, but a huge number (the overwhelming majority I'd wager) are doing this deliberately to use the student visa system to get a working visa that they otherwise wouldn't be eligible for. Even in the "real" international colleges, the students often have no interest in studying at all - just doing the bare minimum to stay enrolled and keep their working rights.

    • @BrittenelleandOrionKMG
      @BrittenelleandOrionKMG 3 місяці тому +2

      And annoyingly all these international students who do this all come from that same region, iykyk

    • @beatrix1120
      @beatrix1120 3 місяці тому +1

      ​@@BrittenelleandOrionKMGI do not know

    • @joshcanhearyou
      @joshcanhearyou 3 місяці тому

      @@BrittenelleandOrionKMGyou mean the earth?

    • @alexgetta4304
      @alexgetta4304 3 місяці тому +1

      @@beatrix1120 they are all indian

    • @thekingspin9846
      @thekingspin9846 3 місяці тому

      Exactly they know very well what they come here for, then play the victim card

  • @bellakagamine
    @bellakagamine 3 місяці тому +9

    As someone living on a WHM visa in Australia, can confirm it's really common to meet others who are on student visas just to work. The thing is, a student visa restricts you to only working something like 20 hours a week, which I think a lot of people don't realize before coming here. A lot of job listings, especially at the entry level, will say things like students need not apply, unrestricted visa required, etc.

  • @Legatus1074
    @Legatus1074 4 місяці тому +71

    HAI showing a lecture hall of the cathedral of learning (definitely not in Australia) and that room gets packed all the time with students. Brings back terrible memories of that room.

  • @slipperydjdan7950
    @slipperydjdan7950 4 місяці тому +437

    When is the next video about bricks?

    • @MrTurbo_
      @MrTurbo_ 4 місяці тому +28

      We, the people, demand more brick content!

    • @ch4.hayabusa
      @ch4.hayabusa 4 місяці тому +8

      Like why are many old beautiful brick buildings in such a state of disrepair

    • @shitpostWJ
      @shitpostWJ 4 місяці тому +2

      Do you mean bricks or brics?

    • @earnestbrown6524
      @earnestbrown6524 4 місяці тому +2

      Maybe one of those schools is about making and using bricks.

    • @emperorpalpatine66
      @emperorpalpatine66 4 місяці тому

      @@shitpostWJbricks. It’s an old joke related to some of the videos made in previous years, I have a public playlist on my channel with all of them

  • @lfraser7128
    @lfraser7128 4 місяці тому +34

    Ya, their all over Canada here as well, it’s basically just an easy way to get a defacto work permit. And here it’s not a recruiter sneaking normal students into these strip mall schools, they advertise it as being a way of being able to work in Canada

  • @4RILDIGITAL
    @4RILDIGITAL 4 місяці тому +163

    It's sad to see how some education institutions exploit both international students and immigration loopholes to their advantage, compromising the learning experience. It's a much-appreciated effort towards bringing light to this issue.

    • @locinolacolino1302
      @locinolacolino1302 4 місяці тому +4

      The basis of Australia's current economy is quite literally selling out the Chinese, never mind people can buy up residencies without even living in Australia, and public infrastructure being privatized for short term profit.

  • @resolecca
    @resolecca 4 місяці тому +88

    This is definitely not a new phenomenon, the Australian government said it was cracking down on this in like 2009

    • @longiusaescius2537
      @longiusaescius2537 4 місяці тому

      @resolecca really they did the opposite

    • @tessjuel
      @tessjuel 4 місяці тому +2

      I suppose the 2009 plan was cracked.

    • @longiusaescius2537
      @longiusaescius2537 4 місяці тому +3

      @@tessjuel implying they did anything

    • @benlever3172
      @benlever3172 4 місяці тому +7

      There have been a bunch of issues with the student visa system being exploited over the years, and they all follow the same basic dynamic, but the technical loopholes they use keep changing - the government keeps closing loopholes but dodgy operators keep finding new ones. The 'concurrent enrolment' thing is the latest way they've found to do their old thing.

    • @longiusaescius2537
      @longiusaescius2537 4 місяці тому +4

      @@benlever3172 Aus has 50 ~ years without something like this. It's malicious negligence at this point at best

  • @xliquidflames
    @xliquidflames 4 місяці тому +62

    The US doesn't even have the dignity of preying on other countries' students. They do it to their own. I went to this sham of a school that promised to teach me CompTIA, Cisco, and Microsoft certifications. I did leave there with lifetime A+, Network+, and Security+ certs but I never got a CCNA or MCSE like they promised. And then I got a bill for $80,000 for just 6 months of classes. The bill included things like meals, room & board, and dorm cleaning fees. They didn't have dorms, a cafeteria, or even a vending machine. It was just a single floor of an office building in Jacksonville, Florida. The school was called Fast Train. After I stopped going and was disputing the bill, they got raided by the FBI and shut down for good. The owner was arrested for all kinds of financial crimes. My bill just kind of ...vanished. The school doesn't exist anymore and because I didn't take out any student loans, there's no one to repay.

    • @xliquidflames
      @xliquidflames 4 місяці тому

      The Miami Herald reported, "Miami for-profit college operator Alejandro Amor had a 54-foot yacht, a $2 million waterfront home and his own private plane.
      Now he’s headed to prison.
      On Tuesday, a Miami federal jury convicted Amor of 12 counts of theft of government money, and one count of conspiracy."
      They had "campuses" all over Florida. I went to the Jacksonville campus.

    • @xliquidflames
      @xliquidflames 4 місяці тому +14

      The guy running it was indicted and went to prison, by the way.

    • @jamesflynn6827
      @jamesflynn6827 4 місяці тому +10

      So essentially you made gains since you got some sort of (recognized?) certificate and didn't need to pay since he did go to prison?

    • @ockertoustesizem1234
      @ockertoustesizem1234 4 місяці тому

      @@jamesflynn6827 stonks ^^^^

    • @xliquidflames
      @xliquidflames 4 місяці тому +10

      @@jamesflynn6827 Yep. I got... lucky, I guess? The certifications are industry standards in the IT world. You can study on your own and go take the tests for them. Or, you can go to a "bootcamp" where they teach you everything in a short time. Or you can do what I did and go to a school where you're supposed to actually learn the material and then take the exams. So, I got lucky, I guess. A lot of people who went to that same school took out federal student loans or personal loans to pay the tuition or they just paid it up front. So, I did get lucky because I wasn't out any money.

  • @TheGiggleMasterP
    @TheGiggleMasterP 4 місяці тому +61

    So now in addition to Nigerian Princes, we also have to worry about emails from an Australian college recruiter? 😅

    • @locinolacolino1302
      @locinolacolino1302 4 місяці тому +3

      Lesson of the video, stay well clear of Australia, that place is a lost cause.

    • @andrewthomson870
      @andrewthomson870 3 місяці тому +2

      If you're looking at Australia as a place to get your academic qualifications, how bright can you be? 😆😆

  • @gslim7337
    @gslim7337 3 місяці тому +6

    I live in Melbourne, and I am absolutely shocked by this..... The government got wise? No, that's not possible.

  • @8stormy5
    @8stormy5 4 місяці тому +7

    Education is considered an export because it's rendering a service that is consumed by people outside of the country. Tourism is actually also considered an export for the same reason. Unintuitive for sure, but that's how to make services line up with regular old goods in terms of import/export balance sheets

    • @mabamabam
      @mabamabam 3 місяці тому +2

      Except the students arent outside Australia. The money they are spending was overwhelmingly earned and spent inside Australia. Education is barely and export. The big numbers are a straight up lie from the edumigration industry.

  • @ben-taobeneton3945
    @ben-taobeneton3945 4 місяці тому +85

    Yep, I was one of those so-called "College" students in Melbourn on the same street.
    Colleges on that street are like 20 and some of them are like 3x in the same building on separate floors. In my class, we were 30+ people if I remember correctly on the first day but later on the number went down to like ~12. We only had to attend only once a week. If you didn't attend, then you just had to catch up yourself by doing the homework they gave us.
    Everyone for the most part had found a job, some even had 2 or 3 jobs at the same time just to make ends meet. Kinda bizarre but that's true. In my colleague, most people were from Latin America and Europe.
    What also fascinated me were the Universities in Melbourn. There are like a couple of universities -Melbourne Uni, RMIT, Monash etc. that come right out of my head. Good universities with a good background but with a lot of people from India and China. Like 90% of them. Only maybe 3-5 out of 65 students were local residents. Kinda insane. I asked one Indian guy: "How can you afford a uni in Australia?" I asked because the prices there are bizarre. Like 90k$ - 130k$ per year! (Or trough 4 years. Now I'm doubting my self. But either way, the price was steep.) Some are less but more or less the prices ranged around there. The Indian guy answered: "We took a loan out of the bank." I was like, OMFG...you're balls deep brother. I was also surprised the bank gave that much of a loan.😐
    And here's the harsh truth. Most of them work 2-3 jobs for like 9 to 10 years just to pay off their debt and without a guarantee of getting a VISA. Sure after ~8 years you can naturalize but the process is complicated. All students are permitted to work only 20 hours a week _OFFICIALY._ I repeat, officially with a student VISA one can work only 20 hours but how can they work in 2-3 jobs you ask? Well, you can assume what the answer might be. But I will hit you, that a lot of places pay you _' under the table.'_ Speaking from my personal experience. The minimum hourly unofficial wage for one place was 15 AUS$/h
    Lastly, Melbourn was a one big fat Chinatown when I was there in 2018. If you know additionally Mandarin, and Korean then that can be beneficiary.

    • @emet0526
      @emet0526 4 місяці тому +2

      15h/AUS$? Like 15 hours for one dollar??? And people take that job up?

    • @ben-taobeneton3945
      @ben-taobeneton3945 4 місяці тому

      Sorry, I made a typo. Meant to say 15 AUS$/h - 15 AUS dollars per hour 😀@@emet0526

    • @agme8045
      @agme8045 4 місяці тому +1

      From what country in Latin America?

    • @mypdf
      @mypdf 4 місяці тому

      in Germany the minimum wage is already over 20AUD and cost of living in Australia is higher...@@emet0526

    • @magical_catgirl
      @magical_catgirl 4 місяці тому +9

      Student visas only allow them to work 20 hours/week *during school terms*, during the holidays, they are allowed to work as many hours they can get.

  • @VishalKhopkar1296
    @VishalKhopkar1296 4 місяці тому +9

    there are such colleges in the US too - who offer something called "day 1 CPT". If your work authorization on student visa has expired, you can enroll in them and continue working

  • @EebstertheGreat
    @EebstertheGreat 4 місяці тому +50

    This is wild. I thought it was going to be about regular diploma mills, which pose as real universities and issue degrees but require little to nothing from the "students" beyond a nominal fee. But this scheme is way more clever.

    • @MonkeyJedi99
      @MonkeyJedi99 4 місяці тому +2

      How the Pasta can you learn to be a vehicle mechanic via online learning?
      Oh wait, we finally have the explanation for dealer service center techs...

  • @YaofuZhou
    @YaofuZhou 4 місяці тому +4

    HAI - Thank you very much for bringing up this topic! As an immigrant started as an international student, I despise those who exploit the generosity of the host country and take other’s grace as granted. It’s cheering to hear this story!

  • @memofromessex
    @memofromessex 4 місяці тому +36

    The UK had the same issue with language schools, the government shutdown on it- but I believe some have kept going.
    I read for some of them the standard of English being taught was often worse than the students own language.

    • @petermichaelgreen
      @petermichaelgreen 4 місяці тому +3

      As someone who studied and now works at a university in the UK, there was indeed a big government crackdown on sham student Visas. As I understand it Educational institutions in the UK are now required to monitor student attendance and report to the government if any foreign students stop showing up.

  • @maxriley1769
    @maxriley1769 4 місяці тому +60

    Great video Sam.
    As an Australian - it is genuinely embarasing that the Federal Government has (on essentially a bipartisan basis) just allowed hundreds of fake universities to be established in random office buildings to enable an exploitable supply of temporary labour for low skilled jobs.
    The racket has been going on for years - and completely undermines the prestige of Australia's actual leading universities that are actually really quite good.
    Everyone here knows the international education export figures are a massive joke, mainly to disguise the fact that the Australian economy is based around being the world's most efficient mine.

    • @FekDindad-xy9vz
      @FekDindad-xy9vz 4 місяці тому

      The big unis are hardly innocent participants. They enrol as many international students as possible. Then when the barely literate kid inevitably fails the uni just passes them anyway. Or forces real students to do the work as a "group" assignment. All trashing the quality of teaching for real students and the validity of the degree.
      But the vice chancellor gets a million dollar salary which I suppose is dll that really matters.

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 4 місяці тому

      KICKBACKS FROM DEAMONS yah WELCOME to modern Earth Aussie! Ohh 'merica say's oops sorry

  • @dscott8799
    @dscott8799 4 місяці тому +5

    I did one of those colleges when i was in Australia in 2005. I had done the 1-year working holiday and i wanted to stay a bit longer. If I remember correctly, we had to show up twice per week for a few hours and I actually still remember the IATA stuff that we were taught (i took some travel related course). When i went back home for uni, this “ghost college” degree was recognised and i was allowed to do a 3-year program instead of the standard 4. I do think some of these colleges are bad and take complete advantage but they’re not all like that. The better ones do employ quite a number of local instructors. My 2 instructors were native Australians for example so i have mixed feelings about how this whole industry is portrayed in the media.

  • @Noscrapsinmyscrapbook
    @Noscrapsinmyscrapbook 3 місяці тому +4

    I used to walk past that building and wonder WTF was going on with so many schools....intl students in those colleges are our uber drivers, service workers and cleaners.

  • @xchurricane
    @xchurricane 4 місяці тому +42

    The use of Penn State's Old Main as a backdrop to "ghost colleges" had me doing a double take hahaha

    • @evanheffelfinger7260
      @evanheffelfinger7260 4 місяці тому +2

      one of my classes at pitt is in one of the rooms that was shown that had me do a double take too

    • @JeremyPeisner
      @JeremyPeisner 4 місяці тому +3

      We are!

  • @BlueChameleon01
    @BlueChameleon01 4 місяці тому +13

    4:24 I had a whole rant ready about how that isn't Comic Sans, but Comic Neue, but actually there's a few frames of Comic Sans at the start of that clip so never mind!!

  • @lakeyboy1000
    @lakeyboy1000 4 місяці тому +6

    My job consists of measuring up office spaces in Melbourne that these ghost colleges lease, because I believe they are required by law to have a physical office. The amount of times I saw students studying in them, I could count them on my hand!

  • @Yutappy99
    @Yutappy99 4 місяці тому +15

    I thought this problem was just a UK one. The Sunday Times recently did an investigation (you can watch on UA-cam) of top UK universities giving places to international students with much lower grades than is required from UK students. International students were allowed onto a mathematics degree with a grade of CCD with a C in Maths. And these people didn't apply through UCAS. Instead, they applied directly to the University through their portal onto a course titled "International Year One".

    • @pinkydoughy
      @pinkydoughy 4 місяці тому +4

      wow! I did applied to a lot of UK universities through UCAS to see how the system worked, and I was admitted to a few. I would never enroll because those prices are mind-blowing.

  • @ErnestJay88
    @ErnestJay88 4 місяці тому +14

    Many countries done this, in Singapore there's a college with 10,000 students but no one show up, because all students are "studying in online class" (no, I'm not talking "Studying at home during Covid") and takes student worldwide.
    When the student graduate, they just simply mail your certificate with grade-point paper directly to your home, and you can proudly say that you're "Singaporean Graduate"

    • @phanminhchau2002
      @phanminhchau2002 3 місяці тому

      What's the name of this college?

    • @ErnestJay88
      @ErnestJay88 3 місяці тому

      @@phanminhchau2002
      National University of Singapore: NUS
      yes, they also have regular students who studying in their campuses, so this is legit

  • @BirnieMac1
    @BirnieMac1 4 місяці тому +12

    As an Australian the tuition side is complex because of our HECS system (i.e. gov facilitated load system thats only repaid when you earn above a certain threshold)
    During covid my university (QUT) had a big financial hurdle out of the blue due to that loss of income from the international students who pay not only more per course (As the gov covers a big chunk of ours up front as a Commonwealth supported position)

    • @locinolacolino1302
      @locinolacolino1302 4 місяці тому

      I wondered why my brother's Hecs debt is so low: he always demands cold hard cash working

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 4 місяці тому

      You said "System" as we all know.. Borken

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 4 місяці тому

      Yep Iz no spellz goody "borken= broken"

  • @JRufu
    @JRufu 4 місяці тому +23

    As a Canadian, this is all sounding very familiar.. Pretty much every time the word "Australia" was used, my brain just replaced it with "Canada"..

    • @thekingspin9846
      @thekingspin9846 3 місяці тому

      And any time the word "India" is used you can expect some sort of exploit being engineered

  • @MorningThief_
    @MorningThief_ 4 місяці тому +4

    As somebody who did 4yrs of University in Australia, I can confirm that the brand new computers in the libraries were funded mostly by full price paying international students.

  • @lowend5566
    @lowend5566 4 місяці тому +6

    A lot of this problem went away during covid when the international students all went home. There was also a concerted effort by the government to deregister these colleges which is an ongoing process. There is, however, a real need to clean up the way the CRICOS registry operates.

    • @FekDindad-xy9vz
      @FekDindad-xy9vz 4 місяці тому

      They don't need to deregister the schools they need to restrict the visa.
      But they won't because the government love a cheap exploitable underclass to screw down wages and pay higher rents.

    • @lowend5566
      @lowend5566 4 місяці тому

      @@FekDindad-xy9vz the schools are set up with a specific purpose , to facilitate visa fraud. So the fraudulent schools need to be deregistered so that a visa applicant has nowhere to enrol except for a legitimate institution.

    • @mabamabam
      @mabamabam 3 місяці тому +1

      Funny how the end of a lot of menial jobs saw supposed "students" lleave. The schools didnt shut, real students continued to study, but the ones here on what are basically cheap work visas all left.
      And then governements did all they could to bring them back. A massive underclass of cheap workers is exactly what they want

  • @bearcubdaycare
    @bearcubdaycare 4 місяці тому +7

    That's American currency (or mock currency).. Australian currency is plastic, I believe, to make it more durable and harder to forge.

  • @powerpcmac
    @powerpcmac 4 місяці тому +10

    If the government was really trying to close this loophole, it would have been done. It's misleading to say they are "cracking down on it" and "really want to fix it" when in reality the problem has only gotten worse over time in many countries.

  • @dalejsalter
    @dalejsalter 4 місяці тому +12

    As a local student this was the reason it was almost impossible to get a low skilled hospitality job. This meant the only way to get through university was through Centrelink (Australia’s version of Social Security).
    Rather than eating ramen 5 times a week I would have preferred to work and go to school. Glad they closed this loophole.

    • @locinolacolino1302
      @locinolacolino1302 4 місяці тому +1

      Just become a Sparky, it's basically like being on the dole except you can blow shit up and steal copper wiring out of the walls on company time, and people still treat you like you're some fuckin genius who's worth the big bucks.

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 4 місяці тому

      Ye haww soo like a toothless surf hooligaan

  • @dickoon
    @dickoon 4 місяці тому +9

    Ghost College would be a great theme for an escape room.

  • @hamishjones469
    @hamishjones469 4 місяці тому +12

    Amy and Sam should visit Australia. There aren't that many spiders gee whizz.

  • @Nazuiko
    @Nazuiko 4 місяці тому +12

    I fully expected that to go into a Brilliant ad read, "theres still a way to sign up for a course of study, barely attend and try to get a job later; its called Brilliant -- "

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 4 місяці тому +1

      Is there a grant for it? How about a viza

  • @TimTams_64
    @TimTams_64 4 місяці тому +13

    it also cause massive property and rental issues, a few years ago they promoted courses to catch the vulnerable with free laptops etc the courses are way more expensive than accredited courses and TAFE colleges.

  • @gd2k04
    @gd2k04 3 місяці тому +10

    So many folks in Australia aren’t aware of how serious this issue has gotten. Being at uni myself, I've seen so many friends exploited by their employers, landlords, migration agents, etc... For anyone reading this who might be affected, remember Fair Work is a good first port of call. And shoutout to orgs like the Migrant Workers Centre and some unions calling this out, finally.

  • @EpicgamerwinXD6669
    @EpicgamerwinXD6669 4 місяці тому +65

    And here I thought the twist would be that these were colleges for Emus.

    • @jesseberg3271
      @jesseberg3271 4 місяці тому +11

      I think the Emus all go to military academies. They did win the war, after all.

  • @letsburn00
    @letsburn00 4 місяці тому +6

    One really critical aspect here is that the export numbers assume that everyone attending the univeristies are funded by money from outside the country. If you commit Visa fraud, youre in country to work, thus youre not actually bringing any money into the country.

    • @FekDindad-xy9vz
      @FekDindad-xy9vz 4 місяці тому +3

      It also assumes all students spend as much money as tourists. Plus's their school fees.
      So not only is the money earned in Australia the actual number is much much lower.

  • @rogink
    @rogink 4 місяці тому +5

    It seems odd that this is still going on in Aus. In the UK we had this kind of scandal around 5-6 years ago. We had a similar system allowing international students to come and 'study' - no questions asked. But a lot of them had been ripped off - or perhaps knew what they were getting into? - and had signed up for bogus colleges. I'd have thought that was a red flag for these other countries selling English language courses.

    • @sharnistevens1428
      @sharnistevens1428 12 днів тому

      It’s been going on over 20 years in Australia. I don’t know why we are so bad at shutting them down.

  • @lachlanchester8142
    @lachlanchester8142 4 місяці тому +4

    My theory is that Incogni is a data broker themselves, hence why they’re so good at removing your personal details from the systems, they broker your data until you pay up

  • @confusedwhale
    @confusedwhale 4 місяці тому +8

    And here I thought it was just going to be a bunch of colleges that did online only, but saying they were from this building was financially beneficial.

  • @NDPeter
    @NDPeter 4 місяці тому +1

    Missed having room 324 Cathedral of Learning show up at the @3:24 mark. Shows up less than 10 seconds later. I've had to teach in that room at University of Pittsburgh a few too many times.

  • @reymeldeleon126
    @reymeldeleon126 4 місяці тому +25

    Thank you for uploading an Australian video at 1:58 am 😊😊😊

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 4 місяці тому

      Haaa

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 4 місяці тому

      MAYBE THERES A JOB IN THAT B ROLL

    • @AMPProf
      @AMPProf 4 місяці тому

      Or better money

  • @mitch.mac01
    @mitch.mac01 4 місяці тому +1

    Yeah Canada is very similar I live in Brampton, Ontario. It might be interested to look at the international student issue

  • @Ichim8
    @Ichim8 4 місяці тому +13

    it’s always a good day when HAI uploads

  • @jamesflynn6827
    @jamesflynn6827 4 місяці тому +5

    Yeah I looked up how much masters cost in Australia, read the tuition fees for international students at a university offering an interesting masters course and laughed hard, especially since my country* doesn't charge very much to international students and for the most part in terms of fees treats them like national students. (usually not more than 600 Euros per year* however they need to have 10k Euros deposited on a locked account)
    (*well in the most part of my country at least)
    So yeah its not surprising that education is at rank 4 and makes more money than gold.

  • @olgalisinska4837
    @olgalisinska4837 3 місяці тому +1

    There’s a international college across the road from my work (also Melbourne) and for a while there there was a homeless guy sleeping in the doorway. After a news report about this came out they stuck a sign on the door saying they moved.

  • @NHLfreak87
    @NHLfreak87 4 місяці тому +3

    I've been to that escape room. It was really good, I enjoyed myself.

  • @Neojhun
    @Neojhun 2 місяці тому

    Those ghost buildings too. I've worked next door to these building and traffic in and out is just staff of the other companies in the same building.

  • @nj0377
    @nj0377 4 місяці тому +1

    I work as a law clerk on Queen street and it’s always funny when I leave the office and see the students from the same building leaving to have lunch. They just occupy an office space like any other small business.

  • @LiLloftmouse
    @LiLloftmouse 2 дні тому

    3:36 I was not expecting to see a lecture hall from my own school in the background of an HAI video, I’ve had bio lectures in there 😳

  • @aaausername
    @aaausername 3 місяці тому +1

    In Australia:
    College - what some high schools call themselves if they want to sound more fancy and can also refer to vocational learning centres more like TAFE.
    University- what Americans know as college, bachelor or higher.
    School- primary and secondary/high.

  • @KruskDerTank
    @KruskDerTank 3 місяці тому +2

    Man the moment he mentioned 190 Queen St it hit home, I remembered walking passed them in the CBD seeing a bunch of “school” inside thinking to myself “wtf are these kind of school, they got a tiny arse campus, no facilities, quite expensive in term of tuition, who would enrolled here beside illegal immigrants with student visa”

    • @Sentient-potato
      @Sentient-potato 3 місяці тому

      i should go there since i'm going to the cbd tomorrow (well today it's it's 12:35)... Like I live in the city I can do that lmao

  • @0ZeldaFreak
    @0ZeldaFreak 4 місяці тому +2

    I thought this was a different Scheme. Some services offer student discounts and I thought they take a small fee, you are officially a student and you don't need to do student stuff but you get the juicy student discounts and most sites aren't aware of it.

  • @jamesmattila-hine1133
    @jamesmattila-hine1133 4 місяці тому +1

    I remember when I went to university in Australia I ended up needing to drop out due to other reasons but the hilarious thing was they said they couldn't unenroll me for another 4 weeks because they still needed to enrol all the international students we were 4 weeks into the year.

  • @lemster101
    @lemster101 4 місяці тому

    Excited to see my city featured on an HAI video, but bit sad on the why.

  • @alexwallach7683
    @alexwallach7683 3 місяці тому +1

    It blew up in other ways as well. Unfortunatley a few people died across several hospitals as nurses has been given jobs after gaining very dodgy nursing qualifications through some of these colleges. In one case, the nurse couldn't read English well enough to read the instructions on a bottle of medicine and gave the person the wrong thing, which led to said persons death. ☹I also attended one of Australia's better known universities as a mature age student. I encountered many foreign students that could barely speak English and would sit silently in tutorials. They couldn't read the study material, and I sat next to a guy in an exam who was caught cheating after writing answers on his arm and wearing a long jacket. I should be grateful in a way, as next these guys I looked like a freaken genius and it definately helped me look better when engaging with the lecturers.

  • @ThesaurusToblerone
    @ThesaurusToblerone 4 місяці тому +3

    My understanding was it was a way for people to come to Australia to work because it's much easier to get a student visa than a working visa.

    • @jamesmattila-hine1133
      @jamesmattila-hine1133 4 місяці тому

      I believe you are correct that's because we make so much money from international students

    • @ThesaurusToblerone
      @ThesaurusToblerone 4 місяці тому +1

      ​@@jamesmattila-hine1133 i mean to say, the students arent being scammed - they're in on it. They want to work, not study.

    • @jamesmattila-hine1133
      @jamesmattila-hine1133 3 місяці тому +1

      @ThesaurusToblerone no I understand they just don't really care because the amount of money they make out of international students. And because of that they want to make it easy

  • @StevieCooper
    @StevieCooper 4 місяці тому +1

    I live in Melbourne and I had NO idea about this until this very video.

  • @drcgaming4195
    @drcgaming4195 4 місяці тому +2

    yeah, our universities make a lot of money by offering courses to people overseas, getting them to come to the country and then making a ton off the fact that they are rich

  • @snowyalice
    @snowyalice 4 місяці тому +1

    I’ve been to the escape room there! I should have spent more time snooping around the elevators instead of inside the themed rooms!

  • @theantipope4354
    @theantipope4354 4 місяці тому +2

    Back when I was a service tech for business equipment in the late 80s, I did a repair job at one of the "colleges" mentioned in this video, & there were literally no "students" there, just a few staffers. They are real, & they are absolutely an immigration scam. This particular "college" did hospitality courses - teaching people how to pull a beer or wait tables; things any average person can easily learn in a day or two at a workplace.

  • @seengame7681
    @seengame7681 3 місяці тому

    I love that escape room. Many good memories there

  • @makouras
    @makouras 3 місяці тому +1

    Sometimes the sarcasm is overwhelming on this channel, at the expense of its educational potential and pacing.

  • @sunnykinoko1757
    @sunnykinoko1757 4 місяці тому +2

    genuinely is a good escape room company. they operate here in the uk and its quite fun

  • @FrostyFrostySnow
    @FrostyFrostySnow 4 місяці тому +1

    Those spiders are fantastic classmates, they offer some very insightful opinions

  • @blondeandconfused
    @blondeandconfused 3 місяці тому

    That escape room is fun! do recommend

  • @eurithmicsrocks
    @eurithmicsrocks 4 місяці тому +1

    I guarantee this will be first story on ACA next week and they'll rip it word for word

  • @TrevelyanOO6
    @TrevelyanOO6 4 місяці тому +1

    If you look at the huge increase in UK education visas, I suspect something similar is happening there. In addition to foreign students having to pay much higher fees, so more profitable, than the locals.

  • @michaelmcglone4280
    @michaelmcglone4280 4 місяці тому

    3:37 That’s the room I had my sociology class in last year.

  • @deleted-something
    @deleted-something 4 місяці тому

    Half as interesting as always!

  • @Fieryaleeco
    @Fieryaleeco 4 місяці тому

    So weird hearing about a building in my city that I drive past & do work quite often

  • @owtinoz
    @owtinoz 3 місяці тому +3

    ex international student here. Believe me, you are just staring at the tip of the iceberg, this is a rabbit hole you wont believe ....

    • @alexisl9426
      @alexisl9426 3 місяці тому

      Could you share further details?

  • @superdestrier9160
    @superdestrier9160 4 місяці тому +1

    There's a place just like this in an office park near my city, I knew it as soon as I read the title!

  • @Arhats_Corner
    @Arhats_Corner 4 місяці тому

    5:50 I thought he was going to start a Brilliant AD lol.

  • @joshorton9061
    @joshorton9061 4 місяці тому +1

    Watched this video upside down for a more authentic experience

  • @RebeccaFitzgerald666
    @RebeccaFitzgerald666 4 місяці тому

    I have been to that escape room and can confirm it’s good fun!

  • @dirkalpha3895
    @dirkalpha3895 4 місяці тому +2

    Missed Opportunity for brilliant as a Sponsor here

  • @thekingspin9846
    @thekingspin9846 3 місяці тому +2

    Love how it depicts the students as innocent victims, they know very well how the scheme works and are just trying to skip the immigration queue to for residency in Australia as many prior have done successfully. The recruiters and the students are all from the same country and are just exploiting Australia.

  • @Gdsamplify
    @Gdsamplify 4 місяці тому +7

    This is why Australia imports 500k Uber Drivers annually. It's great for pricing people out of houses and pushing rents up

  • @joey04ryan07
    @joey04ryan07 4 місяці тому

    Love the old main rep

  • @NBVagabond
    @NBVagabond 3 місяці тому

    Woah, I used to deliver mail to lawyers in 200 Queen St, Melbourne, so the first few moments of this video were kind of a trip 😅

  • @GhostHostMemories
    @GhostHostMemories 4 місяці тому +1

    Is that a stock photo (2:04) of Old Main at Penn State?

    • @xchurricane
      @xchurricane 4 місяці тому +1

      It most definitely is I paused to verify

  • @kellybasham3113
    @kellybasham3113 4 місяці тому

    Love your videos

  • @Enhancedlies
    @Enhancedlies 3 місяці тому +1

    the UK has this problem and it is EXTREME - we must crack down

  • @trunkage
    @trunkage 3 місяці тому +5

    There is another thing to go against International students in Australia. Many rental properties expect you to pay for a full year up front as a bond

  • @BraydonBlanchette
    @BraydonBlanchette 4 місяці тому

    Two uploads today!

  • @milanakik1539
    @milanakik1539 4 місяці тому +2

    5:30 The hell are ∀ustralians doing with Euros?

  • @spiralpython1989
    @spiralpython1989 4 місяці тому +3

    Given that in Australia, Universities are called Universities. A college is EITHER the name of a particular residential hall on or off campus, or the name given to a Secondary School! We don’t use the words that USA uses for tertiary education. (School is not university, it is School ie primary or secondary, or a specific part of an academic faculty with a specific research interest) Sadly many potential international students do not undertake ‘due diligence’ to make sure they understand the system.

    • @FekDindad-xy9vz
      @FekDindad-xy9vz 4 місяці тому

      The students know exactly what they're doing. They are buying a low skilled work visa.

  • @YourDad-dh6fj
    @YourDad-dh6fj 3 місяці тому

    During COVID, alot of the international students were trapped in Australia with no government support and no way to support themselves with work. It was an awful situation.