30% drop in number of Indian students in Australia in 2010

This shows a decline of 30.2 per cent,he said.

Apart from a series of attacks on India students,other factors such as the global financial crisis,ongoing college closures creating uncertainty about the stability of Australian education providers and the rising value of the Australian dollar also contributed to the drop in number of Indians seeking admission into institutions there,he said.

Among the reasons for the lower number of admissions was introduction of a range of changes to Australia’s visa processing procedures and skilled migration programme,the government said.

To a question about actions taken by the government for ensuring safety of Indian students in Australia,Ahamed pointed out that several top-level meetings were held in recent years on the issue.

“During his visit for the Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue in Melbourne on January 20,2011,External Affairs Minister S M Krishna discussed the issue relating to safety and security of Indian students in Australia with Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Premier of Victoria Ted Baillieu,” the minister said.

They assured the Minister that the safety and security of Indian community and students will continue to be addressed pro-actively by increasing the number of police on the public transport system and introducing tougher sentencing for attacks,among other measures,he said.

In 2009 and early 2010,a large number of attacks on Indian students,some of them racially motivated,sparked an outrage in India and prompted the government to raise the issue with Canberra several times. Most of the incidents took place in Victoria province.