Chinese students learn harsh lessons

Problems emerge when an increasing number of Chinese students choose to study in foreign countries. Many students have complained that agencies have misled them and that they have had problems with their overseas universities, colleges and schools.

Nick (not his real name) is one of them. The 28-year-old who now works as a taxi driver in Melbourne went to Australia with his girlfriend early in 2006, one year after graduating from university in China.

His father is a municipal government official and his mother a former worker for a State-owned factory. His father had saved for five years in the hopes of buying a car but, when the family decided to send Nick to Australia, they abandoned the car-buying plan and threw their support behind him.