New Delhi: Reacting to some media reports, the University of Wollongong in Australia has clarified that it had imposed no restrictions on intake of students from India.
The clarification follows the reports in the Australian media which said that five universities in Australia had banned admission of Indian students citing submission of fake documents with applications.
The news reports also named the universities which imposed the ban as Victoria, Edith Cowan, Torrens, Wollongong and Southern Cross. According to the Australian media, Edith Cowan University in Perth had introduced curbs on applications from students belonging to Punjab and Haryana from February this year and Victoria University was regulating applications from students in eight Indian states, including UP, Rajasthan and Gujarat since March.
The reports also mentioned that Wollongong University had introduced restrictions on admission of students from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria in March.
According to the reports, a section of students took up various jobs in Australia instead of pursuing academic activities and considered their study visa as a short-cut to immigrate to the country. Several of these students also submitted fake documents along with their applications to gain admission to Australian universities, said the media.
In its clarification to these media reports, authorities at Wollongong University said that they did not impose any additional restrictions on Indian students other than the common guidelines. In fact, Wollongong University has simplified the admission procedures, the authorities said.
Incidentally, the reports emerged soon after an announcement which said that Wollongong University – which is placed 85 in the QS World University Rankings - would be opening a campus at GIFT city in Gujarat.