The Turnbull Government will today released its 2015 VET FEE-HELP statistical report, which will show the enormous abuse of taxpayer money from rorting private colleges. From The Canberra Times:
Careers Australia, one of Australia’s largest training providers, received $264 million worth of loans in 2015 and had a completion rate of 14.7 per cent.
Study Group Australia – which operates the business-focused Martin College and the College of Natural Beauty – received $181 million despite having a completion rate of just 7.8 per cent between 2013 and 2015.
The Australian Institute of Professional Education (AIPE), which went into administration this month, received $114 million from the government in 2015.
Of the 1006 students who started a course there in 2013 just 16 had completed it by the end of 2015 – a rate of 1.7 per cent…
Overall, there was a 22.7 per cent completion rate for education providers accessing the loans scheme…
The data also shows the dramatic difference in fees between public TAFEs and private colleges accessing the loans scheme. A diploma of early childhood education cost an average $15,158 at a private college in 2015, for example, compared to $4378 at TAFE…
Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the figures were an “indictment” on unscrupulous providers who had preyed on vulnerable Australians by signing them up to courses they could never complete.
The data is “littered with even more examples of rorting and shonky behaviour from some providers who continue to take advantage of students and taxpayers”, he said.
Thankfully, the Turnbull Government has taken action. Earlier this month it announced that it would introduce a new student loans scheme that will impose stricter eligibility criteria for courses, whereas student loans will also be capped.
The Government has also announced that it would slash by more than half the number of vocational education courses that will be eligible for student loans.
Reform cannot come soon enough.
