Hundreds of international students gathered outside the Austech Institute of Further Education in Sydney's inner-west on Monday after the college closed.

Some of the students told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation they were informed to pay their fees early to take advantage of a 500 Australian dollars (457 U.S. dollar) discount.

They said they paid up to 20,000 Australian dollars (18,284 U.S. dollars) only to find out on Thursday that the courses would not be available.

A number of the students said they were only a few weeks away from graduating and they were unsure whether they would be able to find another college.

Police and security guards were on site as the students frantically filled out forms to transfer to another college.

A number of private colleges have collapsed in New South Wales and Victoria over the past year, prompting a review of the international education sector which was released earlier this month.

It found that the industry has been distorted by colleges set up to take advantage of students seeking permanent residency.

The Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he expected a drop in the number of Indian students coming to Australia because of the closures.(Xinhua)

(Editor: Cai Shanshan)