Fly-by-night giant ‘doesn’t pass the smell test’

The ELICOS sector has been hit by the latest big college collapse, the Australian branch of a multinational giant, after its bosses took a commercial decision to shut up shop.

The late January collapse of yet another private college chain - this time in the English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) sector - has reinforced fears of overseas-controlled private education colleges making business decisions to cut and run from Australia. And ironically it appears that the collapse of eight Australian colleges from the Japanese GEOS group may have been precipitated by a precautionary audit by one of the regulators, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority. The VRQA, beleaguered by accusations that it hadn't done enough to protect...