During the lockdowns implemented in Australia in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our principal, Nick Hanna, provided pro-bono legal assistance in his spare time to a large number of international students who were trapped in Australia and faced unprecedented economic hardship but were not entitled to Government assistance.
One of the forms of legal assistance provided by Mr Hanna related to their issues with the private educational sector, which had stopped providing in-person classes for all courses yet did not, in most cases, allow any reduction or deferral of tuition fees.
In an item published by SBS News, the following relevant extract appeared:
Sydney-based lawyer Nick Hanna has been inundated with requests for help from international students.
The problem with a lack of hands-on teaching only becomes more apparent on more practical courses such as hairdressing and physiotherapy.
“They [education providers] appeared to be in clear breach of their contracts as well as possibly in breach of Australian Consumer Law and the relevant Australian Standards for these education providers” because all courses went online, Mr Hanna said.
He provided a template letter for students requesting fee reductions but most were rejected until his law firm became involved.
“Thankfully, in those cases, we did see the colleges back down but it’s unfortunate that it took them to receive correspondence from a lawyer to actually abide by the law and provide students with the flexibility they were otherwise entitled to,” he said.
“They are there to provide a service to human beings and these are human beings who were facing extreme financial difficulty due to factors that were completely outside of their control.
“The students were entitled to receive a quality education – that’s what they paid a lot of money for – and if that can’t be provided, the very least some of these colleges can do is provide some flexibility and lower their fees.”
For the full article, see: Her course went online, so international student Johanna asked for a fee reduction, SBS News, 1 July 2020.
