Over the past four years, it's estimated that the Commonwealth has lost more than $2 billion due to the blow out in growth of the private vocational education sector. Set up under the previous Labor Government, the VET FEE-HELP scheme has been described as a 'poorly targeted gravy train... ripe for rorting'.

A series of shonky operators running private colleges offering poor quality courses have been exposed over the past year, and some licences have been cancelled.

In a major speech today, Senator Simon Birmingham will tell the sector that there are more unscrupulous private providers than previously recognised, and that the federal Government is preparing to come down hard to sort this sector out.