Some of the nation's biggest private training colleges have been revealed to graduate disturbingly few students while receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in government subsidies.
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Only one in 10 students who enrolled in government-supported courses at one leading provider received a diploma within two years, according to new figures from the Department of Education and Training.
The figures show just 300 of the 2762 students who enrolled in Careers Australia courses in 2012 had completed their studies by 2014.
Careers Australia, which has 15 campuses across Australia, was accused earlier this year of employing door-to-door salespeople who targeted potential students in disadvantaged areas with free laptops. The college's salespeople were also accused of enrolling poor students with fake entrance exams.
Assistant Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham said the low completion rates were "absolutely unacceptable" and that he was cracking down on the scandal-plagued sector.
The chief executive of Evocca College, which operates in Queensland, Victoria and NSW including a college in Wollongong, admitted he was "not happy" with the low number of students emerging from study with a diploma.
Evocca had a completion rate of 22.4 per cent in 2012, meaning only 550 of the 2460 students who enrolled that year had graduated two years later. Evocca offers diploma courses in business, information technology, beauty and tourism. Most are supposed to take 18 months to complete.
"I'm not saying we're happy with it," Evocca chief executive Craig White said of the figures. "We are continually looking at ways to improve. Everyone is concerned about low completion rates."
Mr White said completion rates for those who studied on campus – rather than by distance – were about 35 per cent, better than the sector average. He said many students dropped out because they had found work or for personal reasons. They are not allowed to amass debts if they are not submitting assignments, he said.
The federal regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority, launched an audit into Evocca earlier this year, including its recruitment practices and completion rates.
Evocca received $400 million in VET FEE-HELP payments over the past two years – more than any other private operator.
VET FEE-HELP scheme is a HECS-style loans program that allows vocational students to pay their fees when earning a decent wage. The value of the scheme blew out from $325 million in 2012 to $1.5 billion last year – double the expected rate of growth.
Malcolm Cole, a spokesman for Careers Australia, said the Department's figures did not provide a true picture of completion rates.
The figures show 10.8 per cent of Careers Australia students who enrolled in 2012 had completed a diploma by 2014 and 13.4 per cent of those who began in 2013 had finished their studies.
Mr Cole said hundreds of students withdrew from study before the census date each year, meaning they did not incur any debt. And graduation was delayed for nursing students because they must complete a work placement, he said.
"Careers Australia's completion rates are among the highest in the nation," he said. "However, we are always striving for even better outcomes. Careers Australia has invested significant resources into ensuring as many students as possible complete their courses and move on to meaningful employment."
Senator Birmingham said: "I have expressed concerns about low completion rates, which are completely unacceptable.
"The Australian government has introduced a series of reforms that will ensure students are not signing up to courses for the wrong reasons."
These included banning inducements such as free laptops, withdrawal fees and upfront tuition fees, he said.
Labor higher education spokesman Kim Carr said: "The figures suggest that there is a desperate need to rein in runaway fees.
"I fear that students are ending up with high debts, no qualification, and little discernible benefit."
Some regional universities have a drop-out rate of almost 30 per cent in the first year of study, while the drop-out rate is as low as 5 per cent at some elite universities.
SMH
