Category Archives: AAERI

Mar 19 2010

Red Herrings… indeed: Summarising last 8 months of Indian-OZ tussle

”The whole racism issue has really coloured this debate in an unhealthy way, because when our media either seizes on that, or the Australian media in turn respond critically, we are essentially dealing with not black or brown or white, but red herrings,”
SHASHI THAROOR, MOS External Affairs, Government of India.
Quoted in THE AGE.
If Minister Tharoor believes that the whole racism issue is nothing but red herrings, then first lets understand what “Red Herrings” are…
The expression red herring is an idiom referring to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. For example, in mystery fiction, an innocent party may be purposefully cast as highly suspect through emphasis or descriptive techniques; attention is drawn away from the true guilty party.
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The idiomatic sense of “red herring” has, until very recently, been thought to originate from a supposed technique of training young scent hounds.[2] There are variations of the story, but according to one version, the pungent red herring would be dragged along a trail until a puppy learned to follow the scent[4]. Later, when the dog was being trained to follow the faint odour of a fox or a badger, the trainer would drag a red herring (whose strong scent confuses the animal) perpendicular to the animal’s trail to confuse the dog.[5] The dog would eventually learn to follow the original scent rather than the stronger scent. An alternate etymology points to escaping convicts who would use the pungent fish to throw off hounds in pursuit.[6]
In reality, the technique was probably never used to train hounds or help desperate criminals. The idiom probably originates from an article published 14 February, 1807 by journalist William Cobbett in the polemical Weekly Political Register.[7] In a critique of the English press, which had mistakenly reported Napoleon’s defeat, Cobbett recounted that he had once used a red herring to deflect hounds in pursuit of a hare, adding “It was a mere transitory effect of the political red-herring; for, on the Saturday, the scent became as cold as a stone.”[7] As British etymologist Michael Quinion says, “This story, and [Cobbett's] extended repetition of it in 1833, was enough to get the figurative sense of red herring into the minds of his readers, unfortunately also with the false idea that it came from some real practice of huntsmen.”[7]
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Now with reference to the Indian-OZ tussle-point, and using the above explanations from WIKIPAEDIA, we realise that there are not one RED HERRING but several…. Let me list them.
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The person who first called the Australians as Racist and who was quoted and projected by the Indian and Australian Media turned out to be neither an Indian, nor a Student and neither the formation had any validity as the voice of the Indian community. As exposed later, his comments were clearly without basis and even he tried to distance himself from them. However, the damage was done big time and everyone believed the media hype following the claim without waiting for facts to emerge. All instances of attacks by anyone including when the offender was a migrant of similar colour, fake claim of attacks for insurance or simple mugging and even deaths of Indians by Indians were seen as acts of Racism. Australia was branded as Racist and there were even suggestions that India should move for a sanction by the Commonwealth. The first and the original Red Herring…
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The Victorian Police Chief gave statistics on crime on Indians soon thereafter. Later it turned out that the crime stats are not kept on nationality but on the basis of appearance and what he described as Indians, actually included several nationalities. Further, since the crime data for other “appearances” was kept under clearly described categories such as Caucasians or Asians, Media assumed that attacks or crimes has only been against Indian nationals. This is second Red Herring…
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The Indian Government displayed significant patience and maturity. However, the External Affairs Minister, Mr Krishna, speaking at a function organised by an American body, made a statement that indicated, “Indians were being singled out in Australia”. This led to a number of serious commentators in Indian media to also believe that the killings of Indians in Australia over the last many years has been largely targeted and targeted by Australians. As data stood before us, this turned out to be totally unfounded. Of the last 15-16 deaths of Indians in Australia in last two years, only 1-2 is still under investigation. Of all the other deaths, it is now found that clearly in about 10 cases, it is people of Indian Origin themselves who have killed the other Indian. The remaining few cases of last two years has been deaths due to suicide or accident or by drowning. However, when the senior minister made the comment, many took it at face value.  Indian students and Parents continue to believe that INDIANS ARE INDEED BEING SINGLED OUT. This was third Red Herring…
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Without waiting for investigations to complete in the Ranjodh killing, MOS Preneet Kaur, received the body as it arrived in India and then laid a wreath from the Government giving it a “martyr” status. She also made a comment at the occasion indicating that a second advisory had been issued asking students not to go to Australia. The reality was very different but only surfaced after the Media had blown up the issue. Indians killed Ranjodh and he was possibly someone who had entered Australia illegally using a contract wedding and his legal widow stays on even right now in Australia and did not participate in the funeral. The “second travel advisory” was also incorrect awareness of the MOS and the Ministry immediately posted a correction on its website indicating that there is no second advisory and Indian students have not been asked to avoid travelling to Australia. The fourth Red Herring…
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Australian Government remained fractured between the actions in the state of Victoria and the comments being made in Canberra.  There appeared a push primarily to show to all that the acts were not racist and there was little that appeared to be done to act immediately to curtail the street violence in the city of Melbourne. Steps were taken but very late and very slow. The Press quotes provided by the functionaries in Victoria remained badly worded and focussed more on defensiveness and justifications. Clearly the focus of the Australian Government was now distracted and revolved around the sting of the word “racism”. Damage continued as crime continued. Indians continued to believe Australia to be in denial. Red Herring No. 5.
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Focus shifts to QUALITY of INDIAN STUDENTS. Hence scapegoats were found: Private Colleges and their agents. Rapid audits were announced and visas were immediately tightened. This led to closure after closure of colleges. These colleges should not have been in existence in the first place itself but that happened because of low compliance level of the State Government. However, now the tightening and the closures led to different problems for students who were in Australia legally and on valid visas. The Aussie Education brand was affected in the process.  The reality is that the ones to be affected at the end were the Universities and the quality providers and their quality agents who for no fault of theirs were being termed as “bad quality”. Journalists who were not education journalists were quoting in parts totally out of context and even the fall in visa numbers due to the severe visa tightening was projected as a drop in interest of Indian students due to “racism in Australia”. This in turn had a spiralling effect and the market finally lost interest in Australia even in reality. This is the Red Herring No. 6.
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Australia’s USP to International students has been the pathway to work/settlement. There is nothing fishy about this at all and world over all education destinations do offer this pathway using one terminology or another. However, a direct result of noise was the new-belief of so-called experts that this umbilical cord needs severing. Many students who can actually be able to contribute so well in Australia will soon find it difficult to stay on. The intention of ensuring that only those who can get a job stay on or even simply continuing with the reforms that had taken place in the system over the last two years could, easily have enforced that those who are willing to apply their education to workplace in the same line of occupation are granted residency. There was no need to replace the system totally and only fine-tuning would have served the purpose. Australia needs Immigration and potential OZ educated migrants are indeed best fit. More will now be affected and OZ is the loser at the end. Red Herring No. 7.
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In the election year, Australian Opposition is trying to use this issue to attack the Labour Government. Labour Government blames the Liberals stating that it is the result of the policies of the Howard regime. The reality is that the problem was not with legislation then or now but only in compliance of the legislation, then and now. ESOS even in current format is a solid document but hardly enforced. There is no guarantee that it will be enforced after the changes Compliance did not get so much of attention and only the blame-game continued. Who wins, will be known later this year but who is definite to lose is already known. Indian students and OZ-Indian free trade. Australian quality education providers and Australia. POLITICS is the Red Herring No. 8.
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Last eight months has proven that audience has indeed been diverted from the truth due to the RED HERRINGS…
Mar 10 2010

Baird’s ESOS Recommendations: Misplaced Diagnosis!!!

I have just put down the 95-paged Report submitted to the OZ Government by Former Liberal MP Bruce Baird recommending ESOS amendments. Find it here. THE AGE informs that

Education Minister Julia Gillard said the government would begin immediately to implement six of the recommendations, including measures to fine colleges that break the rules, and prevent colleges from poaching each other’s students.

The report is historic and the changes if the recommendations are followed will be historic too. Anything historic need not necessarily be positive and I forecast that if all the recommendations are followed to a tee, it will lead to a “historic blunder” and there will be a need for another commissioning for a report just a few years ahead.
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Before I lead on, lets take a synopsis from THE AGE:

Former Liberal MP Bruce Baird yesterday handed down his report, which calls for changes to weed out shonky operators and provide greater protection for students.

Mr Baird said migration policy, which made it easier for people to achieve permanent residency if they studied courses in areas of skill shortages, such as cooking or hairdressing, had distorted the education sector.

”We have permanent residency factories,” he said. ”If you ask any of the good providers, they will quickly name those that they believe are dodgy operators who are rorting the system.”

He said they made up about 20 per cent of the vocational sector.

Colleges would face tougher registration standards, including a sharper focus on their financial resources and business models. Those considered high risk, for example, because they draw heavily from a single source country, would be monitored more closely and bear a greater portion of the cost of industry assurance schemes.

Colleges would be required to provide more information to students and regulators, including details of their student population, facilities and support services and the commissions they pay to agents, information that could in the future form the basis of another My School-style comparison website.

Mr Baird wants a new streamlined system to place students left stranded by college collapses, and in some cases to prevent college closures. This body would also provide refunds to students who could not be placed in a similar course.

Mr Baird also called on NSW and Victoria to join with other Australian states and territories in extending transport concessions to international students.

”Discrimination in terms of travel passes goes to the very heart,” he said. ”These students need to feel part of Australia and I think that is part of it.”

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On the face of it, all this will sound so good and positive and you may question the line that I am taking in this blog. Hence, my explanation:
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Like most of us, Jerome Groopman believes that practitioners of modern medicine are all too human and so are prone to make errors in judgment. But since the doctor’s errors can be fatal, every effort should be made to minimise them. That requires studying medical errors scientifically. This is precisely what the author does in this splendid volume.
The book, he says, “is about what goes on in a doctor’s mind as he or she treats a patient.” Every physician — even the most brilliant — makes a misdiagnosis or chooses a wrong therapy. Groopman differentiates “medical mistake” from “misdiagnosis.” While the former involves prescribing a wrong dose of drug or looking at an X-ray upside down, the latter is about the way doctors think, analyse a situation, or arrive at a diagnosis taking into consideration all the factors available at that time.
A majority of medical errors, according to him, do not qualify as technical mistakes, but are attributable to flaws in the physician’s thinking. He quotes a study of one hundred cases of incorrect diagnosis where inadequate medical knowledge was identified as the reason in only four cases. The rest are all due to what he calls “cognitive-traps,” which are of three types. First is “availability,” where recent or dramatic cases come to mind and colour judgment about the case in hand. Then comes “anchoring,” or short-cut thinking, where the doctor does not consider multiple possibilities but quickly and firmly latches on to a single one. And the third is “attribution,” where stereotypes can prejudice the doctor’s thinking and lead to conclusions that do not flow from the data on hand.
(HOW DOCTORS THINK: Jerome Groopman; Byword Books Pvt. Ltd.)
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Before putting out the recommendations, Baird has provided the arguments and the reasons. Unfortunately, the diagnosis at several instances is totally wrong and in sync with Groopman’s theory. The recent cases have coloured the judgement, short-cut thinkings have disallowed multiple possibilities and stereotyping of agents and private colleges have further led to wrong conclusions. The initiation of the reform is due to the recent “attacks on Indian students” and Baird indicates this in the letter to the Deputy PM right in the beginning of the report. Still, the Indian angle is also absent.
  • Singling out of Private Colleges is misplaced. Baird ignores the role of Public Providers (some Universities and some TAFE) for this mess:
While attacking the role of private providers, there is no mention of the type and the nature of the loophole in the system that they exploited to bring the students onshore other than what we knew already about some of them being “permanent residency factories”.  Simply talking of a nexus between a private provider and their agents is not sufficient. This is where a major glitch occurs. The nexus was not just between Private Colleges and their agents BUT also there was a role-played “knowingly and for financial gain” by some public providers.
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Without this “hand holding” by some Public Providers, the Private Colleges couldn’t have brought the students from overseas markets to the “permanent residency factories”. While the colleges still had to run the programs, public providers simply pocketed a portion of the fees for issuing the packaged enrolment letters and this too knowing fully well that they don’t have to run the course. Diplomas in Cookery in Sydney were packaged with Degrees in Melbourne. Diplomas in Motor Mechanics were packaged with Degrees from Northern Territory and even the Diplomas in Hairdressing were packaged with Degrees in Criminology. This was the SCAM that led to the huge increase in student numbers between 2004 and 2008.  The inappropriate packaging that allowed students to slip through easier visa norms and these Public Providers and Private Colleges were clearly shaking hands even legally. I feel that some Public Providers are more to be blamed as without their packaging the abuse of the system couldn’t have occurred. How can Baird’s report be so one-sided, I really wonder.
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I am not too surprised that the former MP missed it totally considering that despite an extensive resume, he doesn’t seem to have much experience with the “education industry”.  The recommendation that “travel concessions” be offered to international students in NSW and Victoria is welcome BUT is this ambit of ESOS review. However, considering that Bruce Baird was the Transport Minister in the NSW government at some stage, experience counts here.
  • Education Providers and Education Agents.
The report does detail the need for education providers taking responsibility of their agents. But, was this not part of the ESOS even earlier. The report lays out some clear norms on use of agents mid way into the course, which is welcome. However, what is not welcome is that the report confuses the distinctness of the role played by agents in offshore markets with some agents onshore. It quotes example of flyers being distributed at railway stations in Melbourne and the adverts that incite students to switch Universities. By putting all the ingredients into the same bowl and churning, the image of agent blurs giving out a stink.
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Baird quotes providers to indicate that agents run the roost and get paid commissions of 50%. How ridiculous that none of the quotes in this reference are from TAFE or Universities. Can Baird not make some differentiation here to ensure that the Government doesn’t trip when implementing the recommendation? Which Public Provider or a reputable Private Provider pays this type of commission and why should they? The quote was from a language school and no wonder it doesn’t reflect the reality in India. Mr. Baird, the standard commission paid by the University is 10% of first year fees and hence if we take an undergrad degree and average it out, we are looking at only about 3.33% of the total fee. For a two year Masters, it will be 5% of the total fees. Mr Baird, bring about a balance in your report considering the sensitiveness of the issue rather than exaggeration from selective quotations to further an argument. The decision takers will only look at your recommendations and set norms for the entire industry and future of Australian education.
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Asking institutions to provide details of the commission to students is another huge blunder. This is not in line with what is being done around the world and not desirable. The contract of institution and agent is a private agreement. The ESOS can address the issue of unrealistic commissions by some language schools or private colleges through putting a cap on the total commissions quite easily and this will address the issue for all. All students counseled by agents are told and hence are aware that the reason why they are not being charged for the services is that the institutions will be paying the agents. There is nothing really more than this.
  • Baird overlooks the loopholes of the AL system:
Bruce Baird also makes no mention of how the system of generalization provided by the AL mechanism has lead to “low quality” students getting preference over “better quality and genuine” students for student visas. He may argue that this is not part of the ESOS and is for DIAC to fix BUT if he can make recommendations on transport subsidy to the state governments of NSW and Victoria, can he not make recommendations to another federal department of the Government of Australia considering he is doing the report for the Federal Government.
  • Missing Indian link and the successful experiments by AEI in India:
Bruce Baird notes the difficulty of extending the Australian legislations to foreign markets and this is where I find his not mentioning the role AEI has been playing in India with the promotion and support of self-regulating AAERI, to be another blunder. AAERI can be a model for all other markets. Just this Monday, AAERI General Body has fine-tuned its own constitution and has not just made it stricter but has introduced “third party integrity check” for all its members. The General Body meeting held at the Australian High Commission in New Delhi was addressed by AEI and DIAC and AEI counsellor clearly acknowledged and appreciated the role being played by AAERI in the interest of Australian Education Industry. Australian High Commissioner in New Delhi too is appreciative of AAERI’s contribution. Mr Baird, the only way to implement the ESOS Act legally in India is through the use of a body like AAERI. AAERI is registered in India though promoted by OZ Govt and in its code requires that its members follow ESOS and hence it leads to the implementation of ESOS in India. Do you get my point, Sir? Don’t tell me that you did not hear of AAERI at all over the last 8 months. AAERI seems to be the only point where the Australian Opposition supports the Government.  I quote from an Australian Media Report (26th October 2009):

It’s the proposals affecting agents that have stakeholders worried. They would require Australian providers to work only with agents who had completed recognized training courses such as the one run by Professional International Education Resources (PIER), and who belonged to professional bodies such as the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India.

“AAERI … has a code of ethical practice, the agent activities are streamlined, the students are given authentic information, and the agent charges are fair,” the Opposition’s spokesperson on international education, Dr Andrew Southcott, told Parliament – although he also pointed out that most agents in India hadn’t joined the association.

Just to clarify, ALL active agents in India are members of AAERI and after the recent changes to its constitution; all members also have to clear the PIER’s EATC in addition to third party integrity checks. There are clear schedule of fees and full transparency. Advertising norms that have ensured over years that the quality of adverts of AAERI members is far superior to those of agents in the “unorganized” sector. Australian High Commission site clearly recommends students to use AAERI members. Mr. Baird, I do think you missed this somehow.
  • DIAC and eVisa system:
Baird’s suggestions that DIAC notifies education providers whenever they suspend an eVisa agent are also misplaced. The DIAC list has always been a public listing and available on the immigration website. There should be some role for privacy to be maintained too as there are many reasons on which an agent may be suspended from the eVisa process and those reasons can include 1) volume requirements and 2) inaction on a login for more than 28 days. The eVisa mechanism is already being tightened a fair bit.

  • Baird overlooks Aussie Government’s commercialization of Education:
Mr Bruce Baird, would have done well to recommend to the Australian Federal Government to take a political decision and still stop the transfer to AUSTRADE of some of the educational roles that currently is with AEI. Treasury announced last year, plans to shift responsibility for promotion from Australian Education International to Austrade. Announced as part of the government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, Treasury said it expected to reap $8.6 million in savings over four years. The government said the move would facilitate a “whole of government” approach to promoting education. It will be effective from July 1. I know that it has been planned earlier but the circumstances and scenario has changed and hence to allow this changeover to occur will be the historic blunder.
The Australian in INDUSTRY QUERIES AUSTRADE ROLE writes:

THE international education sector is expected to renew its call for an independent body to advise on strategy after being surprised and disappointed by the government making Austrade responsible for promoting the industry.

The industry is worried the move risks sending a message that international education is valued largely as an export earner. It is complaining that it was not properly consulted and is concerned the announcement by Treasury was more about cost cuts.

“I don’t think this is the best option,” president of the International Education Association of Australia Stephen Connelly said.

“I think it sends a particular message about international eduction that at this time is probably the wrong message.

“It is disappointing that a decision like this has been made with no real consultation,” he said.

AND Times of India in its Editorial article “Fix the WELCOME sign” says:

Having assured all parties that international students are not just a commercial opportunity for Australia, the government has quietly transferred responsibility for international education marketing from the education portfolio to Austrade – Australian Trade Commission – whose only goal is commercialisation. In India, that will confirm suspicions that while Australia is investing in scholarships and research collaboration, at heart a carpetbagger approach prevails.

This Jekyll and Hyde approach undermines the long-term value of international education for Australia. Regrettably, the present inquiries have amassed uninsightful information and ineffective recommendations in anodyne reports that do little to calm the atmosphere, let alone improve the situation.

Concluding remarks:
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My assessment of Baird’s report doesn’t mean that there are no positives at all. There are and they are in plenty. However, I am not sure if the report lives up to the expectations. Many knew whatever has been reported, and some could have done a much better job in lesser time.
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A piece of Art doesn’t fetch the price because of what we see on the wall or that it makes sense. Its value is in the signature at the corner of the frame. Sometimes, confusing brush strokes on a canvas by a politician fetches more than an art by a trained artist. This is our world.