THE crisis in international educational has spread with the sudden collapse of four colleges in Melbourne and Sydney, leaving 2000 students stranded.

Foreign students studying for VCE exams in Melbourne were among those caught out when a company that owns the four private colleges went into voluntary administration yesterday.

Victorian education officials rushed to ''secure'' the exam papers of 19 VCE students, and a new venue was last night being hastily arranged for them to sit their exams from Monday.

Yesterday's closures amounted to the single biggest loss of student places in a day since the crisis began. Nine Victorian colleges have now closed since July, affecting a total of 2695 international and domestic students.

The State Government has promised to place the year-12 school students in Government secondary schools and offer training students places in similar courses with other colleges as soon as possible.

The $16.6 billion international education industry is braced for further college closures in coming months as the Federal Government cracks down on migration fraud, which is expected to result in the rejection of some visa applications.

The placement of Global Campus Management Group into voluntary administration yesterday forced a senior secondary school and three vocational training colleges to close. They were Meridian International School, Meridian International Hotel School, International Design School and International College of Creative Arts.

Angry students gathered outside colleges demanding answers. Karun Sachdeva, 24, from India, was studying at International Design School. He said he did not know whether he would be refunded the $2500 he had paid for the next semester. ''I made the biggest mistake coming to study in Australia,'' he told The Age. ''The quality of education here is shit. We have nothing but the media to rely on now [to protect our rights].''

Teachers at the Meridian International Hotel School were called to a meeting in the Flinders Street offices at 4.55pm and within minutes were told they had lost their jobs. Terrence D'Souza, who taught commercial cookery there, said teachers were stunned and shocked.

''They said they do not have enough funds to pay us and we would have to leave straight away,'' he told The Age.

The Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority said the immediate priority was to ensure students doing VCE exams experienced no disruption. ''The VRQA has sent senior staff to the secondary school today to ensure that all VCE examination papers are secured and that students are properly briefed on the situation and where they will be undertaking their examinations,'' director Lynn Glover said.

Further college closures could hit Victoria's economy hard - international education is the state's biggest export earner, bringing in more than $4 billion a year.

Industry insiders say governments - state and federal - have been slow to rein in unscrupulous operators because of reluctance to upset a lucrative industry.

A spokesman for state Skills and Workforce Participation Minister Jacinta Allan said the Government's primary concern was for the students.

The State Government is auditing 41 colleges it believes pose a high-risk to international students.

It is also reviewing state legislation and guidelines.

Andrew Smith, the head of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training, said: ''ACPET will make every effort within our obligations to transfer students to a comparable college with minimal disruption.''

A spokesman for PPB, the appointed administrator, said he was unable to comment last night.

(www.eduwo.com, Jainlyn&Charlotte)