Ballarat university students in scam probe

UNIVERSITY of Ballarat international students have again become involved in controversy with an investigation underway into serial absenteeism and possible rorting of medical certificates. Students from Saudi Arabia have been questioned about their involvement in an alleged scam providing fake medical certificates to avoid exams and obtain assignment extensions.A report submitted by a senior academic has been made to the Medical Board of Australia naming a Melbourne-based doctor regularly used by students from Saudi Arabia.In several cases, students were provided with a one-day medical certificate from a Ballarat doctor.Twenty-four hours later they then travelled to Melbourne where they obtained week-long certificates or certificates excusing them from exams.In one faculty, 20 Saudi students reportedly comprised almost half the number of special consideration applications.The university is not formally involved in the current investigation and the Medical Board of Australia said it would not comment at this stage.Earlier this year the University of Ballarat was named in an Ombudsman’s report that criticised four tertiary institutions for putting revenue from international students above their welfare and academic standards.But an academic at another university said bullying and attempted bribery of teaching staff by overseas students was common place.Dr Maxwell Winchester said he had raised with the attorney-general the issue of academics receiving death threats from foreign students. The senior lecturer of marketing at Victoria University called the level of corruption among visiting overseas students “unacceptable”.“You have to accept these students come from a culture where they can buy their way into almost anything and they assume they can do that here,” he said. Dr Winchester said the government should undertake an inquiry into the overseas student sector, which he called Australia’s largest export industry.He said he was aware of the use of “dodgy” medical certificates at his university but it appeared not to be at the same level as in Ballarat. He said he knew of academics who had received death threats.A University of Ballarat spokesman said it would pursue the investigation when staff returned next week. In response to media questions, a spokesperson from the Muslim Students Association of Australia said it could be of “no assistance”.But they were only about five per cent of the faculty’s undergraduate student population.In one case, one student had filed six applications.In other schools such as engineering, nursing and IT, senior staff have raised concerns about alleged abuses of medical certificates supplied by the same Melbourne-based doctor.When quizzed by a lecturer, one student claimed to have visited the doctor because he spoke Arabic.But staff say many of the students appear healthy and they have questioned the authenticity of the certificates.