Harini Rathnakumar did not realise her visa status made her different to her classmates until she received a university offer that required her to pay international student fees of nearly $100,000, despite living in Australia for over a decade. Harini arrived in Australia in 2013 when she was 10 years old, after fleeing Sri Lanka.

After attempting to self-fund her studies and falling a year behind in payments, the university disenrolled Harini in 2023 – four months before she was set to complete her degree.