Students aspiring to go to Australia for higher studies, may find it safer in Victoria state, with the Victoria Government taking several security initiatives, following violent incidents reported over the last few years.

A prime educational hub with nine universities, Victoria reportedly witnessed crime against as many as 1,447 Indians in 2007-08 followed by a series of violent attacks on Indian students in the subsequent years. According to a 2010 report by Federation of Indian Students in Australia (FISA), 30,000 Indian students left Australia that year.

Drop in enrolments

In fact, authorities of the Government of Victoria say that Indian student enrolments for courses in Australia last year dropped to 46,000, following which they brought in research scholarship programmes and implemented safety measures to encourage Indian students to explore opportunities for higher studies in Australia.

“The Victorian Government has initiated a series of law and order measures including deployment of 1,600 additional police, reform of knife laws, placing police officers at every train station and strengthening neighbourhood watch,” said Mr Geoffrey Conaghan, Commissioner to India, State Government of Victoria, Australia.

As part of the security measures, services including the ‘Student Welcome Desk' at Melbourne International Airport, the ‘Study Melbourne' Web site, and 24-hour International Student Care Service in Carlton have been introduced. Victoria Police also launched Operation Guardian - a two-year programme that was started after a research in areas where international students faced incidents of any degree of seriousness.

To help the students get a better understanding of Victoria's culture, the Victoria Government introduced the ‘Culture Card' for international students, a new, free card that takes them through the state's best attractions in the area of sports, food and leisure. Mr Conaghan said that nearly 50,000 Culture Cards and 25,000 Welcome Bags at Melbourne Airport were distributed earlier this year.

Other initiatives

As part of other initiatives to reach out to Indian students, the “Study Melbourne” Web site was recently launched in Hindi to enable better access for students. In addition to this, in June, Victoria Government started a doctoral scholarship programme to attract Indian scholars to Victorian Universities in association with the Australia India Institute (AII).

This programme offers 10 scholarships for Indian citizens for undertaking doctoral studies at a Victorian university. Each scholarship is worth $90,000 over the duration of their doctoral study.

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