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Thousands of students lose their qualifications in light of fake Diploma crackdown
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Freya Lucas
Dec 05, 2024
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Three vocational education colleges – Luvium, Gills College and International Institute of Education and Training PTY (IIET) – have been caught up in ‘an unprecedented government crackdown’ - accused of issuing fake diplomas in a number of key care sectors including early childhood education, disability support, aged care, community services and first aid.
The colleges advertised campuses in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, with thousands of students potentially impacted by the closures, including a number who may as yet be unaware that their qualifications have been cancelled.The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), in its capacity as the national regulator for the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia, undertook the serious regulatory action following a series of compliance investigations, progressing to the cancellation of the registration of some providers.
Where these providers are found to have issued qualifications without the appropriate training or assessment ASQA is pursuing regulatory action to cancel the qualification or statements of attainment.
IIET - Trading as EDU VET
ASQA cancelled the registration of International Institute of Education and Training Pty Ltd (IIET) trading as EDU VET effective 21 November 2024, and has issued notices of intent to cancel the qualifications issued by IIET to 6818 former students relating to 7206 qualifications for the period of 23 January 2023 to 14 November 2024.
Students who attended IIET in that time frame are encouraged to review the factsheet here.
Gills College Australia ltd (Gills College) - Trading as Elite College Australia and/or Sterling Business College
ASQA cancelled the registration of Gills College Australia ltd (Gills College) trading as Elite College Australia and/or Sterling Business College effective from 21 November 2024, and has issued notices of intent to cancel the qualifications issued by Gills College to 3364 former students relating to 3577 qualifications and/or statements of attainment for the period of 7 January 2022 to 21 December 2023.
Students who attended Gills College Australia ltd (Gills College) trading as Elite College Australia and/or Sterling Business College in that time frame are encouraged to review the factsheet here.
ASQA considers that some of the qualifications and/or statements of attainment issued by Gills College during the relevant period are valid. Former students have been contacted directly by ASQA only where there are concerns about their specific qualification(s) and/or statement(s) of attainment.
Luvium Pty Ltd (Luvium) - Trading as Australia Education & Career College
ASQA cancelled the registration of Luvium trading as Australia Education & Career College on 19 October 2024 and commenced issuing notices of its decision to cancel qualifications to former students of Luvium from 15 November 2024.
Students who attended Luvium trading as Australia Education & Career College in that time frame are encouraged to review the factsheet here.
Decision made in the interest of public safety
The decision to close the colleges and cancel the qualifications, ASQA said, was made in the interest of public safety because former students may be working with vulnerable people without proper training.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald consultant and former vocational education sector regulator Claire Field said the move was unprecedented.
“In a way it’s good – we don’t want untrained people out there – but on the other hand how on earth have so many thousands of students been so badly trained over the last few years and the regulator has not been aware?” she said.
“Some of them are presumably legitimate students, and they’ve walked away with nothing.”
While previous crackdowns have focused on ‘ghost colleges’ recruiting international students to work illegally in Australia rather than studying, only one of the colleges impacted by the recent compliance action was registered to teach international students.
Students impacted by the closures were given a seven day window to argue that their qualifications should not be cancelled. In relation to Luvium, an ASQA spokesman shared that just over 10 per cent of students impacted reached out.
Of the 7,360 qualifications issued during the window in question, ASQA determined that 7,358 would be cancelled, with the remaining two “still being considered.”
Scrutiny continues
ASQA opened a VET hotline on 4 October, inviting ‘tip offs’ from the general community about potentially non compliant practices.
Since the hotline opened, a spokesman confirmed to The Sydney Morning Herald, it has received more than 2800 tip-offs with more than half “providing actionable intelligence”.
The investigations and enforcement team at ASQA, he continued, is managing more than 200 serious matters relating to 179 providers.
There are 23 ongoing investigations into training providers, most of which relate to misleading advertising practices and qualification fraud.
“In the case of Luvium, its registration was cancelled because, among other things, ASQA found that it issued qualifications without appropriate training or competency-based assessment by qualified assessors,” the spokesman said.
“The registration of Gills College was cancelled because it issued qualifications and statements of attainment without adequate assessment, and did not ensure students had successfully satisfied all requirements prior to issuing VET certification.”
“IIET’s registration was cancelled because it had issued qualifications without appropriate training or competency-based assessment by qualified assessors.”
For Ms Field, there are a number of unanswered questions as to why the provider’s approvals were cancelled.
“I am surprised because it’s a big change from their previous approach over a number of years, that this is a measure of last resort,” she said.
“To see them use it so frequently with such large numbers in such a short space of time signals a change in their regulatory approach that hasn’t been communicated to the sector.”
Access the original coverage of this story here.
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