Thousands of Foreign Students Are Affected by Closure of 4 Australian Institutions

Four private vocational colleges in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, abruptly closed last week, leaving some 2,700 students in the lurch weeks before they were to have completed their programs, according to reports by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Associated Press. Some of the students, who are mostly from India and Southeast Asia, had recently paid thousands of dollars for courses next semester. The company that owns the colleges began bankruptcy proceedings on Thursday, dealing a major blow to government efforts to rebuild the battered image of Australia’s vocational-education industry.