Frogs in the Melting Pot
Some 547,000 overseas students help create an A$ 15.5 billion annual industry for Australia.
However the countries third-largest export industry, following only coal and iron ore exports, is under threat as Australia ignores the calls of international students for better safety and fair treatment following a re-emergence of racist attitudes.
Hundreds of students took to the streets on 2 September 2009 in Sydney; again, to protest against racism. They urged the Australian government to take seriously students’ grievances; including concerns about safety, accommodation, visas, transport concessions and shonky institutions.
To be frank, none of these problems are new.
For a long time an inefficient bureaucratic system and ingrained racist attitudes have allowed all of these problems to remain unsolved in Australia.
The situation is similar to putting frog in slowly heated water.
International students are not the only frog in the hot pot, and surely they will hop out if the situation gets worse. Australian local residents and business will be the victims of the boiling water; the economy too.
International students asked for transportation concessions 20 year ago. Victoria and New South Wales, where the majority of international students in the country live, still refuse to grant concession to international students. Although, compared to the more than 50 per cent increase in tuition fees international students have paid, transport concessions would seem to be only symbolic of fair treatment.
The concern over safety issues broke out in May when Indian students protested against a series of violent attacks in Melbourne and Sydney. The Australian government and police argued that no evidence showed these attacks were related to racism or discrimination.
They were politically right. However, they ignored some important facts.
Because of limited on-campus accommodation, many international students live in unfamiliar suburbs far away from universities. Walking alone at night the students, with cash in their wallets and little knowledge of the legal system, become easy targets for criminals.
Unless they were seriously hurt, many international students did not report to the police when robbed or attacked; because in such a culturally and linguistically diversified country, only a few Australian police officers understand foreign languages.
The Australian government tried to protect the education industry by burying important statistics as secrets but failed.
The Age unveiled that details of the deaths of more than 50 overseas students in the past year have been suppressed. People are concerned that the death toll is higher than what the Australian government has admitted.
A more astonishing fact is that international students have been treated as slaves in this country. Those in vocational education collages and institutions have to work 900 hours a year without being paid a cent, just for getting a visa.
The tough situation international students face has drawn international attention; especially in China and India, the two largest sources of international students.
India’s government has warned Indian students to seriously think about the risks of studying in Australia. Chinese parents are also seriously concerned about whether it is worthwhile to send their only child to the country.
The Indian student market has already showed negative signs, with the recruitment body IDP Education Australia reporting an 80 per cent year-on-year fall in appointments by students in August. The potential economic loss in New South Wales alone could be as high as $300 million, warned Acting Opposition education spokesman Andrew Stoner recently in the Sydney Morning Herald.
It is good to see universities have taken some actions.
Some have enhanced security patrols and some, such as the University of Sydney, have started to provide free shuttle buses at night between railway stations and the campus.
Federal Minister for Education Julia Gillard announced recently that all education providers for overseas students would need to re-register under tighter criteria by December 31 next year. She said this would restore confidence. She also called for an International Student Roundtable, inviting 31 international student delegates to discuss related issues in Canberra last week.
Due to the legislative process the earliest we can expect to see many of the practical measures put into place is 2010. It might be too late.
The University of Melbourne recently announced it would cut 220 jobs, partly because of economic losses. The University of Sydney announced similar job cuts and course cuts in the name of “biding to become a world-leading research institution.” Many private colleges are at the edge of closing because of financial problem.
To be self-deceiving or not; Dr. Michael Spence, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney said, “I don’t think the water it getting hotter and hotter. I think it is getting cooler and cooler.”
Tim Matchett
September 21, 2009 at 4:10 am
spot on
Hi Gang,
I totally agree that more needs to be done for international students, especially tighter restrictions on those smaller institutions you mentioned. Your piece reminded me of a Four Corners report on the same topic, exposing how many of those small independent colleges are ripping off students from overseas and taking advantage of their wish to study here. And also as you mentioned, those colleges often force students to do ridiculous amounts of work (unpaid), just to get a visa. Considering how much money int. students are worth to the government, you’d think they’d be more desperate to make life a little better for them.
Warren Reed
September 21, 2009 at 10:40 pm
You’ve hit the nail on the
You’ve hit the nail on the head. The bureaucratic bungling in Australia over foreign students during the last 20 years is almost unbelievable – and certainly unforgiveable. Successive federal and state governments should have worked out a unified system long ago that would, for example, have granted to all foreign students transport concessions. The fact that this any many other similar actions weren’t taken makes Canberra’s current, rasping plea that it is "doing everything it can" sound feeble and naive. It is a pale shadow of the careful thought, cultural sensitivity and humanity that went into the very successful Colombo Plan that ran for some decades. Older Australians remember that scheme with great warmth, as do the many foreign students who came to this country then. Some of their grandchildren are here now for their education.
shadowchaser
May 11, 2010 at 8:13 am
Can you come up with something new?
Greg,
You seem to be missing the point, I agree that foreign students do get a raw deal in some cases especially when it comes to over priced fees and false promises concerning visas, but thats where it stops, and its about time that people stopped playing the race game every time there is a problem concerning visitors to Australia, the issue with overpriced fees come down to one specific point, student education concerning overseas students is big business and it means money, just as any other business its main aim is to get as many customers as it can to line the pockets of the people that run these schools and promises of visas is just another sales pitch to attract people to take up the product, it has nothing to do with race or racisim and its comments like that wich only perpetuate problems and adds to tensions about the attitude of Australia, and in many cases people are recruited in their own countries by local operators, so actually many students are ripped off by people of their own race even before they get here.
The incidents concerning the so called racist attacks on Indian students is also another horse thats ran its race, as you have pointed out that many students need to work late hours and have to be out late at night and many must rely on public transport to get around,add the fact that many are more than likley carrying laptops or other valuables it is obvious that they would be targeted by opportunistic theives,not gangs of racisists roming the streets to find Indian people to bash,and again its this type of scare mongering journalism that creates the problems we often see in this society, so much so that this rubbish gets so much air time overseas that many students come here with a preconcieved idea that Australia is full of red neck racists waiting for them to get off the plane and bash them, so it is this false repoting that is creating a racist mindset in this country. I see one of your solutions is for the government to provide accomodation closer to the schools for the students to live in, a nice thought, and in a perfect world we could do that, but in the real world that just isnt how thigs are, local people that live here are finding it increasingly harder to even find accomodation, let or loan accomodation that is close to work, school etc so why should the onus be on the government to provide accomodation for overseas visitors? one way would be for these students to pay even bigger fees to cover accomodation, but would they be prepared to do so?
Its a sad fact of life that racisim exsists in this world, I myself have witnessed some horrible acts but there is no country in the world that doesnt have racisim of some form or another, for as long as we have humans we will have racisim, but it doesnt help matters to always try to perpetuate the myth that Australia is any more racist than other places, wich seems to be fasionable thing in this country, the moment someone from another country has an issue here its straight away accepted its a racisist incident,its like an immature child that says "I cant get something I want, so nobody likes me"I have traveled to many parts of this world and I can tell you first hand that in the scheme of things Australia is very tame when it comes to racisist attitudes, Ive been to certain parts of Asia where just because Im a forighener Im charged double the price to eat, enter entertainment venues and even use a toilet, but thats not racism thats because Im percived to be wealthy and I can afford it, well if that happened here to visitors from overseas there would be all kinds of screams, and what about my work college that was in a middle east country stoped at a red light in his car and was ran into the back by a local, it was found in court that my friend was in the wrong because he was a foreinger and if he had not been in their country the accident would not have occured! but thats just their law, here its called racisim, we could go on all day about whos right and whos wrong, but at the end of the day its not going to change, and crying racisim everytime you dont get your own way will never fix the problem, in fact it will only serve to make the problem worse by creating fear, division and anger, remember what many people from certain ethnic groups in Australia say when they have trouble with their youth getting in trouble with the law often say, if you keep telling someone that they are bad they will start to belive it, the same can be said for Australia, if this kind of perpetual myth about Australia being racisist continues then thats what will happen, so in the interests of everyone and the future of the country that so many choose to call home, be careful what you wish for because you just may get it.