AN Australian university claims that Britain is trying to take advantage of the federal government's refusal to admit a number of Chinese students by suggesting they could enrol in British universities instead.
More than 20 of the Chinese students had been offered a place at the Victoria University of Technology in Melbourne to complete the last two years of a business associate diploma course. But Australian immigration officials in Beijing refused to issue them with visas.
The university now says English officials then contacted Shenzhen University in southern China, where the students had been preparing for the VUT course for two years, indicating that British institutions would sign agreements in lieu of those it has with VUT and Griffith University in Brisbane.
VUT also says that Chinese students wishing to undertake technical and further education courses in Australia are being discriminated against. The 22 Chinese students who were offered places on courses in Melbourne had their visa applications rejected, but eight of those intending to complete a degree had their visas approved.
The suggestion apparently made by the British officials is that UK visa requirements would not be as stringent as those applied by Australia, and that Chinese students would therefore have easier access to English universities.
Under arrangements between the Australian universities and Shenzhen, Chinese students can start a course there and finish in Australia, paying Aus$10,000 (Pounds 4,761) a year.
VUT called on immigration authorities to recognise the legitimacy of further education studies and warned that Australia could lose out unless it reviewed its student visa requirements.
Immigration minister Phillip Ruddock said students who took degrees were more likely to return home than those taking shorter courses. "What we know is that if you get a genuine student (undertaking a degree), you're dealing with a person who is very likely to return," he said. "But when you're dealing with non-degree courses of fairly short duration, you do have a concern that the purpose may not be an education purpose but a migration purpose."
Mr Ruddock said students offered places by VUT had been refused visas because they had failed the required English test. Another six who were to enrol in a degree programme in Melbourne did not have to take the test, following a relaxation of the rules last year, and were issued visas, while a further two had passed the test.
The minister said VUT should have known that Chinese students hoping to take non-degree courses in Australia had to meet strict health, financial and English language competency requirements.
The tests, more stringent than those for other foreign students, were introduced five years ago after immigration officials discovered that thousands of Chinese who had come to Australia for short English-language courses had become illegal immigrants.
Since the tightening of restrictions, the number of students becoming illegal immigrants had fallen, but was still above average.
A VUT spokeswoman said that although the students had failed the immigration English test, the university believed they were capable of completing a diploma course and possibly going on to finish a degree. She said a two-year course could not be considered to be one of short duration.
Last year, the Australian embassy in Beijing issued only 1500 visas to Chinese students. Although this was up 50 per cent on 1995 figures, and brought the number of Chinese students in Australia to about 2000, it was in sharp contrast with the 40,000 in America.
Critics in the universities say that immigration controls are limiting the number of students, rather than demand from the Chinese or the willingness of Australian institutions to supply services.