Best of 2023: Why are thousands of students enrolled in college, but not studying?

Today, we're bringing you an episode from our archive.

They stand largely empty, hiding in plain sight, their little-used classrooms scattered through office buildings in cities across the country. In the exploding foreign education industry, they call them ‘ghost colleges’.

These colleges are supposed to be providing tens of thousands of international students with an education. But in reality, many of them are near deserted.

On this episode, investigative reporter Clay Lucas joins Samantha Selinger-Morris to talk about his months-long investigation into the rise of Australia’s ghost colleges, and what they tell us about our immigration system.

This episode first aired on August 22, 2023. Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.