Aussy: Still a dream for International Students?

Since the abolition of White Australia Policy in 1973, Anglo-Saxon Australia has been transformed into a multicultural society. In the last 40 years, through its generous migration policy, Australia has welcomed the people from all over the world. Located on the Indo-Australian Plate and Surrounded by the Indian & Pacific oceans, this Down Under played a unique role in bringing East and West together. Today, Australia’s annual immigration rate is over 190,000. One in every four Australians was born overseas. People from more than 200 different ancestries speak about 300 different languages where over 16% Australians speak a language other than English at home including indigenous languages. Compare with many European, American and other developed nations living in Australia is still much cheaper. Health, education, food and accommodation are still very economical than many western countries. Beautiful beaches, population free environment, amazing landscapes, mountains, deserts and unique wild life have made Australia a dream to live for countless people around the globe.

In the last 40 years, Australia has not only been the attraction for foreign professionals to permanently making Australia their home but for those international students and novice who aim for higher education and professional development. World’s best Universities, Research Institutes and finest Australian Education System have made an increasingly popular study destination of international students. Today, Australia is the third most popular study destination in the English-speaking world. In the last 20 years, the number of annual foreign enrolments has almost double and the recently collected figures of the last 3 years show that the rate of annual foreign enrolments is increasing by 20%. For example; in 2008, 543,898 international students were enrolled in various education programs in Australia which is a 20.7% increase on 2007 enrolments. International students are playing a significant role in the Australian economy. According to the sources, international students contribute around $15 billion a year to Australian wealth which helps significantly the local economy. Increasing overseas study destination for international students acknowledges Australia, globally, as a knowledge nation with a prosperous and highly reputed competitive universities, technical institutes, colleges and schools.

In Australia, foreign students add a rich and vibrant layer to the Australian diversity. They are highly considerable labour force for local industry and business market. These students come to Australia generally with the goals either to permanently settle in Australia or return to their homeland after achieving their academic goals. When these students go back to their countries they become the ambassadors for Australia. Their stories become the dream for many youngsters and professionals to experience Australian life.

More than 60% foreign students are enrolled under vocational education system in Australia every year. Vocational qualification in different faculties suits to them very well. These foreign students mostly from Asia, Africa, South America and East Europe come to Australia with the goals to improve their English language, attain occupational & professional qualification, work part time gaining Australia experience and meeting educational & living expenditure and earn some money, if they can, to look after themselves and to their close ones abroad. Attending college, studying and doing part time (mostly labour) jobs are not easy for them yet their challenging and demanding goals make them strong and committed to work hard for their better lives.

Majority of international (vocational) students are enrolled in the private international colleges. There are more hundred private colleges running across Australia and majority of them are in New South Wales and Victoria. Running international college can be a highly profitable business for the operators of these colleges. No doubt, some of these international colleges are delivering quality education & skills in various faculties. Nevertheless, in a high quality educational environment, the vocational education system particularly for international students has been less monitored and appraised by the authorities concerned.

Cashing the huge flow of overseas students to Australia, several international colleges, migration agents and small business employers are exploiting this noble profession. For example; once students arrived in Australia and joined the college they experience that they are being neglected now, they find no adequate students’ support system, ignorance from their migration or college agents and so on. Then there are other non-educational issues they experience; for example; inadequate and substandard housing supply, workplace exploitation by unscrupulous employers, inappropriate students’ transport concessions and they see nowhere to get sufficient help and assistance.

Another, regrettable fact is that there are numerous international colleges, who aiming to enrol as many as foreign students, offer low fee, minimum classes per week and no compliance on classroom attendance and the obvious return is poor quality of education. As per immigration law foreign students are only allowed to work 20 hours per week in Australia. There are instances where foreign students are offered jobs on cash-payments for more than 20 hours per week by the employers. Therefore, motivated by the available unlawful practices being provided by dodgy colleges and small business owners many overseas students choose these colleges to be enrolled in and work long-hours for odd jobs on cash payments.

Of course, there are audits, performance review procedures, inspections and penalties on non-compliances set by the Vocational Education and Training Accreditation Board (VETAB) and other government departments. Nevertheless, old, routine and traditional procedures need to be re-examined by the authorities concerned in order to fulfil the current demands of all the stakeholders including foreign agents and students.

Similarly, a number of highly publicised attacks on Indian youth in Australia, in recent time, raised the other non-educational facilities being provided to international students. These incidents revealed that there wasn’t any coordination between the education department and other administrative agencies for the social and economical protection of foreign students during their stay in Australia.

According to reports, over the first eight months of 2009, the Overseas Students Support Network, Australia, received around 1,500 legitimate and serious complaints. Majority of them were related to non-academic issues including safety, living and work-related matters. While interviewed by the ABC, few months ago, Robert Palmer, the Director of the Support Network said that their organisation found six or seven students who were thinking of suicides due to their worst living conditions.

Then there have been cases where students loss thousands of dollars due to sudden shutdown of private colleges. They don’t get enough help to get refunds. The ABC's Four Corners program earlier in 2009 reported on overseas students who had lost tens of thousands of dollars to colleges, or migration or education agents and they didn’t know where to go and what to do.

The substantially increased rent especially of Sydney and Melbourne properties, transport fares and even food prices made hard for foreign students to cover their daily living and educational expenses by working 20 hours per week. The immigration department has to re-evaluate students working hours considering the remarkably increased cost of living in metropolitan cities of Australia in recent years. Otherwise the rate of unlawfully working long-hours on low wages & cash payments for odd jobs will continuously inflate in foreign students. Recently academic research from Monash and Melbourne University showed more than half of the international students surveyed for that research were receiving less than the minimum wage, which is now $14.31 per hour. Even more disturbingly 33.9% of those surveyed were receiving less than $10 an hour—which in Australia is effectively slave labour rates. Consequently the work-related injuries, depression and threats from the employers to the foreign students will constantly grow. Medical insurance or health cover is another area where foreign students complaints extensively. They find hard and time delay procedures for reimbursement of medical bills particularly in cases of ordinary illnesses. Foreign students receive no help from their colleges neither there is any government agency like job network where they can get support to find job which suit t them. The Australia Government has to look into this area. There must be job network type government agency which should exclusively look after foreign students. Private colleges increase their enrolment charges and fees whatever suit to them and in some cases it becomes hard for students to re-enrol for next term. Non-payment or delay in payment may result termination from the college and pack-up for home. It is understood that colleges need to review and set their fees to meet their growing expenses. However, increase in charges must be done with the close consultation of all the stakeholders including government authorities concerned. Safety of foreign students is a very critical issue.

Assaults on Indian student, in 2009, brought lot of embarrassment and shame for Australia. Mr. Michael Wesley, executive director of international policy think tank for Lowy Institute, prepared a report, in August 2009, on the long term damage to the Australia, in result of attacks on Indian students. During a radio interview, Mr. Wesley said that welfare of foreign students is highly important for Australia otherwise this might cause serious problems in Australia in coming years.

Certainly, Mr. Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration & Citizenship, Chris Evans, and Mr. Laurie Ferguson, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services have done some good work in the reviews and reforms of key multicultural and immigration program and some of them are related to international students. Yet, lot more to do in order to make sure that there must be a better system for re-enrolment, job-finding help services, complaints hotline, easy health support system, substantial concessions in transport and housing and adequate safety or policing measures for international students. To keep the Australia a dream for foreign students and professionals it is important that Australian experience for international students and professionals remains on the whole a positive one. This will benefit to all the stakeholders involved. (The writer is a Sydney-based journalist and an educationist, his website is www.sauhassan.com ).

ENDS

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