MELBOURNE’S educational institutions are bracing for a decrease in students from India, as three of them report declining applications following assaults on overseas pupils.

RMIT and Victoria University yesterday reported early signs of a drop in demand. Both universities attributed the decline to negative Indian media reports about student safety in Australia.

Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis said there were early indications of a dramatic fall in applications from Indian students.

‘‘We’ll know in the next couple of weeks what it means, but I’m anticipating a quite sharp fall in the number of Indian students who elect to come to Australia,’’ Professor Davis said on ABC radio.

He was responding to a question about the impact of media reports about the exploitation of international students by training college operators allegedly involved in rorts and scams. However, early reports of a downturn are not supported by official enrolment figures and student visa applications, which both show growth to June.

Professor Davis said a reduction in Indian students was a ‘‘great loss’’ for Australia. ‘‘Many of them do choose to stay and contribute to our nation after they graduate, so to lose that cohort is really distressing. To lose it because of such unscrupulous behaviour as is being reported would be particularly tragic,’’ he said.

He said Melbourne University was not affected because it had only a modest number of Indian students (250), mostly post-graduate students.

The Age was unable to contact Professor Davis yesterday to expand on his comments. His spokeswoman, Christina Buckridge, said he did not have firm figures to hand but had been privy to conversations about a dramatic reduction in applications from India on a recent trip to Canberra. Australian universities rely on international student fees for an average of 15 per cent of their revenue.

Dr Madeleine Reeve, RMIT’s pro vice-chancellor international and development, said: ‘‘Anecdotally, our agents in India are telling us there has been a reduction in demand, but how this will translate for 2010, we just have to wait and see.’’

India is RMIT’s fourth-biggest international market. The university has about 700 Indian students enrolled.

Chris Downes, the acting vice-president, international, of Victoria University, said fewer students recruited in India had accepted places, with 80 acceptances in semester two this year compared to 109 acceptances for the same semester last year — a drop of 27 per cent.

‘‘This is in line with trends being reported by comparable universities and can be attributed to the negative Indian media reports about student safety in Australia over the past few months,’’ he said.

‘‘We anticipate that acceptances from India will recover during 2010.’’

The most recent official data from Australian Education International, the international arm of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, shows strong growth in enrolments, particularly in the vocational education and training sector.

In the year to June, there were 467,407 international students in Australia, up nearly 20 per cent on the year before. More than 89,500 Indian students were enrolled in the year to June, an increase of 38 per cent on the year before.