Universities push to lure students from ‘risky markets’

Major universities are outsourcing background checks to a small start-up firm in a bid to crack down on fraud and misrepresentation in the booming international student market as they push into ‘riskier’ regions. The firm has been swamped with interest from universities keen to lure students from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana and western Africa, writes Michael Koziol for The Canberra Times.

But the push to recruit from less developed regions risks opening the door to students with weaker English, lower financial security and higher prevalence of fraud. Macquarie University and the University of Queensland have contracted the firm Probitas Quad, according to its founder Andrew Durston, while it has also formed a relationship with the University of Sydney’s recruitment office. The University of Canberra and two Victorian institutions are also in talks.

“One of the universities that has taken us on has really decided they want to push into some riskier markets,” Durston said, citing the Punjab and Gujarat regions of India. “You get people who will try to exploit that.”
Full report on the Canberra Times site