The federal court says a private college in Sydney misled students into thinking they were signing up for free classes when in fact they were being saddled with immense debt.

"Many people were not even aware that they were being enrolled by Unique and unwittingly signed up to significant debts," said Rod Sims, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which initiated the action against the Unique International College in Granville.  "Unique misled misled people by stating that the course was free, when in fact they would incur a debt of up to $25,000 per course under the VET FEE-HELP scheme," he added.

The court also found Unique's marketing deliberately targeted people from disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, using door-to-door sales tactics in indigenous communities and former Aboriginal missions in Wagga Wagga, Walgett, Bourke, and Taree, during 2014 and 2015.  Recruiters used gifts of free laptops or iPads to reel in students. 

The ACCC says some of the students believed the classes were free, and thus signed up for the free iPad with no intention of completing the coursework.  Others "were sold a dream of what their life could be if they got educated, only to have that fall apart". 

The college could face multi-million dollar fines, while the ACCC works to unburden the students.

"We will be pushing very hard to get those (consumer) debts forgiven," said Sims, "It is extremely unfair for people to burdened with this debt for life."