The fair organised by the International Development Programme (IDP) and Australian Trade Commission at a city hotel, which ended Saturday, was a complete success, organisers claimed.

Twenty-two institutions from of Australian Centre for Education (ACE) and International Development Programme's (IDP) 300 member institutions participated in the fair.

The significant and positive side of the fair, said some of the visiting students, was that about 95 percent of the participating institutions we were well known.

Ahmed Raffi, a North South University (NSU) student said that this was the first time that a fair had representations of reputed universities and colleges participating. "At a certain stage, I thought these education fairs were a farce, just an eye-wash, yet gaining a high source of income in a short time, but the one that just concluded proved me wrong," he added.

Topping the list of participants were the famous Melbourne Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Southern Queensland, University of Western Sydney, University of Queensland's foundation year programme, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) programme of the University of New South Wales (NSW), University of Canberra.

Most university representatives said that their participation in such fairs was to judge for themselves the standard of students before enrolling them into the various university or college programmes.

Commenting on the usefulness of such exhibitions and fairs, University of Canberra's International and Community Relations Manager Janet Mountseer said: "Such fairs give us as well as the prospective candidates the opportunity to interact better with each other before registering with any of the programmes our institution offers."

Representatives of other institutions echoed the same sentiments adding that platform of this nature give them the chance to understand the levels of students who apply through local representatives. On the other hand, students are aware of the wide range of courses offered by each institution, said another representative.

"It is amazing how the student interest varies. In fairs held earlier candidates inquired only about undergraduate programmes. But with these fairs coming into existence frequently, many have been inquiring about postgraduate and PhD programmes as well," the representative added.

Students agree they learn much about application procedures to foreign universities as well as embassy regulations as Taher Rahman, himself a student said: "There should be seminars and presentations where we are given ideas of the entire admission process, and we will also be aware if local representatives are fair on our pockets."

IDP's Student counsellor Afruza Sultana said that the fair was a success admitting that though almost 50 percent of visitors to the previous fairs came in just to while away their time, the percentage of such visitors had reduced to five percent at this fair.

She added that 350 students actually submitted forms and many got spot admissions to these universities. The numbers are much higher this time, she said.