Breaking: Sydney SRC Wechat taken over by Chinese education and migration agency

Ellie Stephenson reports.

One of the University of Sydney SRC’s WeChat helper accounts (Wechat ID: SydneyUniSRC) appears to have been taken over by Chinese education agent AusPac International, potentially meaning that thousands of international students’ contacts have been leaked to the company. This is especially concerning given students may have asked for about sensitive issues like academic dishonesty, via the account. All SRC-related content has been deleted from the account.

According to its LinkedIn, AusPac is an “Australia government recognized Education and Migration Consultancy” with “a long term relationship with Universities, Colleges and Schools in Australia.”

When asked for comment, a member of the SRC Executive explained that the account was controlled by councillors belonging to the Panda faction from last year’s council, who refused to hand it over at the beginning of the year. They expressed shock at the privatisation of the account, particularly given it is under the name of the SRC.

Fortunately, the account is separate to the organisation as a whole, so while any information messaged to the account would be passed on to AusPac, information held by the SRC is safe. Details provided to professional caseworkers remain confidential.

Pulp asked previous SRC president, Jacky He, for comment, however they did not respond by the time of publication. We also contacted Panda councillors who said that they did not know what had occurred.

The main USyd SRC WeChat remains unaffected.

Note: This article was edited to include that professional SRC caseworker services remain secure.