A National government audit of the VET-FEE Help system has been flagged for the next financial year. The Labour opposition’s request for an investigation was recently approved by the commonwealth auditor-general.
This follows government reports and senate estimates hearings received throughout 2014 in relation to private colleges targeting public housing areas of Sydney where English is commonly not residents’ first language.
Concern is for students who have been lured into courses without consenting to the potentially exorbitant large college tuition fees’ and/or without fully understanding the government loan system to which they have been committed.
Additionally the use of this scheme has continued to sky rocket since it’s introduction in 2009 and total expenditure has risen from $25 million to $1.3 billion projected for 2015.
Audits will be conducted by the Australian National Audit Office during the upcoming financial year (2015 – 2016).
See the Australian article for more details:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/audit-flagged-for-vfh/story-e6frgcjx-1227178735160?nk=b34b2b66e5ab974494f3b843ed92fe97
History of this issue in the media, ABC news:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-06/unregistered-training-colleges-target-low-income-earners/5793246