Safety of Indian students a matter of highest priority

High Commissioner Peter Varghese has said in the letter, written last month after Shukla raised the issue of attacks on Indian students in Australia during the budget session, that "Australia takes its reputation as a safe destination for international students very seriously".

24-years-old Tosha Thakkar, a student from Vadodara, was brutally murdered in Australia in March this year.

But Varghese`s letter says that the attacks on Indian students were not "representative of the majority students".

It adds that more than six lakh students from foreign countries were enrolled in Australian colleges last year, including over one lakh Indians.