She was assigned to teach 80 students at Sydney's Unique International College, but hairdressing teacher Penny Martin never heard from any of them, a court has heard.

They were some of the more than 2000 students that Unique International College recruited to its campus in Granville, while the college accrued more than $57 million in taxpayer funding.

Amarjit Singh, centre, outside the Federal Court on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the college and its owner, Amarjit Singh, faced the Federal Court on a charge of unconscionable conduct in the first of a series of trials as the government attempts to reclaim more than $420 million in taxpayer funding from the vocational education sector.

The college is accused of recruiting disabled, illiterate students from Aboriginal missions and putting them into student debt worth tens of thousands of dollars through promises of free laptops.