Liliana paid thousands to study in Australia but never got her money back

It was Liliana Sandoval Jimenez’s dream to study in Australia. For six years the single mother from Colombia worked two jobs and sold her business to scrape together the funds to provide herself and Joseph, her five-year-old son, with better opportunities.

“One of my dreams was to leave [Colombia],” she said. “For a better life for me and my son.”

However, Jimenez never made it to Australia and instead claims to have lost thousands of dollars to an Australian education agency.

She said she paid about $6300 to Hi Student Agency between 2023 and early 2024 for a confirmation of enrolment – a crucial document for international students applying for a student visa – and a place in a course provided by a private education provider.

Her visa was denied amid a clampdown on international students. Jimenez said the agency promised her a refund – confirmed in emails seen by the Herald. But she says she is yet to receive a cent back.

“This has affected me financially and very much psychologically. I ask so much of God that He gives me the strength to continue,” she said.

“I have been left without a business, a job, and no savings. The savings I had set aside for flights are all I have left to sustain myself and my son. It has been very hard; I suffer from anxiety. I have no idea what to do … I am starting from zero.”

Hi Student Agency has been accused of keeping advance fees from nine former prospective students, documents provided to the Herald reveal.

Brayhan Marin, another prospective student from Colombia, said he paid Hi Student about $5100 to enrol at the Universal English College. When his visa was denied he also claimed Hi Student Agency promised a refund, which he has yet to receive.

“It makes me sad, I have lost hope because now there are so many people … who [they] said [they were] going to pay back,” Marin said.

Hi Student’s director Gabriel Gerardo Garcia Benitez has since shut down the agency and started a new one called Woop Education.

Garcia did not directly respond to questions about the refunds but a spokesperson from Woop said the claims about not refunding students were a “clear misrepresentation of facts”.

“Woop Education has no contractual, commercial, or legal relationship with any of the individuals you have referenced,” it said in a letter sent via its lawyers.

“[Woop] acquired a list of 62 active students from a sole trader previously operating under the business name ‘Hi Student Agency’ in November 2024. This acquisition did not include debts, liabilities, funds, assets, or staff.”

The cases of Jimenez and Marin are in addition to 10 complaints lodged with Fair Trading against Garcia by prospective students, alleging they were scammed and received botched visa applications.

Fair Trading said it could not take action against Benitez because some payments were not facilitated through his Australian business, instead through another company he managed in Colombia.

Higher education providers are regulated by a federal agency and are required by law to ensure that education agents are compliant.

This process, however, allows education agencies free rein, according to Melanie Macfarlane, chair and executive director of the International Student Education Agents Association.

“The fact of the matter is that education agents – they are not regulated at all.”

Macfarlane advocates for a system of self-regulation with a blacklist that can revoke an agent’s accreditation for misconduct.

“I think the best thing with all of this refund malarkey is for education providers to keep that money and to refund directly to the student. Otherwise you get these problems with unregulated agents who are not giving it back,” she said.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said education providers “must ensure that their education agents act ethically, honestly and in the best interests of international students”.

The education sector is Australia’s fourth-largest export, contributing $50.5 billion a year to the nation’s economy, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In March international student agency GrowPro Experience collapsed, leaving more than 1000 hopeful students without refunds, according to the ABC.

That agency has also been accused of continuing to pocket advance fees from students after it was insolvent, though its director denied this.

Sean Stimson, senior solicitor for the Redfern Legal Centre’s international student service, said education providers being held responsible for the actions of education agencies was a good mechanism but one that lacked oversight.

“International students are perhaps considered an easy target, not just in regard to education. We can see that they are often those who are impacted by wage theft … I think primarily it’s the lack of certainty around their legal rights.”

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