Asians are faking qualifications to get Down Under

Mainland students and thousands of other Asians are using fake English language certificates to try to enrol in Australian universities.

A huge expansion in foreign student numbers - from 40,000 to 220,000 over the past 10 years - has greatly increased competition for visas, especially among students hoping to become permanent residents after finishing their courses.

The forged certificates have supposedly been issued through the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and are said to be available for up to $10,000 on the black market.

IELTS officials in Australia are working with police to try to track down crooked migration agents who supply fake certificates.

Australian immigration department officials said that on the mainland qiangshou, or 'hired guns', charged fees to sit the English tests. The department's Beijing office identified 1,550 cases of student visa applicants using false documents in 2003.

An IELTS spokeswoman in Sydney said cheating and fraud had become so common worldwide that staff running the tests were being trained to detect impostors. Test questions were also limited to one time zone to stop their sale over the internet for use in other cities.

According to the spokeswoman, another problem was that many students with genuine certificates still did not speak English well enough to cope with Australian university courses.