Lessons in Australian Culture Shock

This article tells about culture shock issue mostly faced by international students especially if it is their first time study overseas. This article was published on Canberra Times, 2nd March 2008.

I T'S JUST over three years since the badly decomposed body of a 24-year-old Chinese student enrolled at the University of Canberra, Zhang Hong Jie, was found in a Belconnen unit. It was seven months since she had been strangled. It was a tragic story, still playing out in the Chinese legal system, which spoke of isolation and loneliness. It is tempting to draw conclusions from the story about the general experience of international students, who make up a significant proportion of Canberra's university students, but the truth is more mixed and generally much rosier. As one might expect, many international students are homesick when they arrive in Canberra. Most undergraduate students are only 17 or 18 years old and leaving home for the very first time and leaving it thousands of kilometres behind. ''Once they get over the initial euphoria of being here, they get homesick,'' the University of Canberra's international student advisor, Bari Hall, says.

''The next biggest problem would be some of the culture shock. We send them all kinds of information before they arrive, about Australian life, Canberra life, various things like speech differences, food differences all those things [but] they still experience culture shock.'' Culture shock is by no means universal, however. A third-year bachelor of commerce student Junde ''JD'' Li, of Singapore, found it easy to fit in. ''Australians are so laid back that I don't think it's much of a culture shock, and I don't think most students experience it,'' Li, who is also the Australian National University Students' Association's international student officer, says. Hall says that while culture shock was common, some students ''settle in here and lap it up''. About 10 per cent of the UC's 10,000 students are international students, coming from 80 different countries. A quarter of the international students are from China, followed by Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.

At ANU, international students make up almost 22 per cent of the university's student population, coming mainly from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Some student support at the UC has been lost. The university's Students' Association has been without an international student officer for more than a year, a casualty of the Howard government's abolition of compulsory student unionism. Sri Lankan student Samitha Ramanayake is in her third year of the ANU's bachelor of biotechnology course. He is a volunteer in the university's meet-and-greet program, picking international students up from the airport on arrival and helping them settle at the university. He found a marked difference between the initial reactions of Asian students, whom he says looked ''really gloomy'', and European and US students, who were ''really happy to be here''. Unlike Australian students, international students or their parents, usually pay full fees, so they are under considerable pressure to do well. An ANU bachelor of commerce, a popular choice for international students, costs about $65,000. Li says, ''They pay three times the cost of locals. And then there's flight tickets, accommodation, health cover.''

Many work the full 20 hours a week that their visas allow. Canberra's seemingly intractable accommodation crisis does nothing to help students feel settled. The ANU itself has a severe shortage of accommodation. On- campus accommodation is coveted, for convenience and because of the support it offers to first-year students. However, because final room allocations are not decided until just before classes start, some students arrive without knowing where they will be living, and many are forced to live off campus. Some even spend their first few days or weeks in a hotel or hostel. Ramanayake says, ''Most people choose the YHA because it's the cheapest. This time, I don't know why, so many people are not housed on campus. So many arrive without a place to stay.'' English is an obvious challenge for students from non-English speaking countries. Although Canberra's universities require a high standard of English, problems still arise. Li says some students' language limitations mean they have trouble understanding lectures and taking part in tutorials. Ramanayake says some students shock him with their poor command of spoken English.

''For Asian students, it's pretty good, [but some] European students have a problem, like French students this semester. Some people couldn't communicate I had to use pen and paper.'' A lack of confidence in English was one of the reasons why international students sought help from the ANU's student association. Rizvi says, ''Finding accommodation without much English is very tough.'' She encourages international students to bring in their rental agreements, while a full- time lawyer working at the association takes up claims. Although the ANU says international students perform no worse than other students academically, Rizvi says they are disproportionately represented among those who seek the Student Association's help in appealing poor grades. ''I think it's the English thing. People like JD help with the wording of the appeals and we also go along to hearings. A lot of time we're providing moral support.'' For all the difficulties faced by foreign students, Rizvi is full of praise for the ANU's support. ''I think the international education office is very supportive. It's a really big effort, 24 hours a day.'' The office is a drop-in centre and referral service for international students. It provides the meet-and- greet service, a mentoring program, training sessions, and academic help, among a host of
other services.

The office flew Li and Rizvi to Singapore and Malaysia for a three-day pre- departure briefing, allowing fledgling students to learn about Australia and make friends. Each of Canberra's campuses have a number of social and cultural organisations catering to students from particular countries. The Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Canberra, for example, has almost 600 students from the ANU and 63 students from the UC as members. The association organises everything from movie nights to paintball. Some students enjoy their experience in Canberra so much they fear reverse culture shock on returning home. Indonesian PhD student Gita Gayatri, who has spent four years at the ANU, spoke to the Sunday Canberra Times just before flying home. As a Muslim, she was warned to expect hostility in Australia, and while she experienced some verbal abuse off-campus she says she is sad about going home. ''It was a very precious experience for me. [The best thing] was the friendship and the opportunity of learning things from different cultures. In Indonesia I have to go back to a normal life with lots of compromise. I don't know whether I can cope.''

Make Friends during Study in Australia

Studying in overseas means we will have a chance to meet and know many people from different countries. We can make friends with lots of people. It is interesting since people from different countries have different cultures, norms, values and beliefs which shape their behaviors and attitudes. Therefore, while we make friends, at the same time, we can learn new cultures which can broaden our perspectives in seeing the world.

I have a very nice experience in meeting new people while I am studying at the ANU. Some of the new people I met become my close friends, although some of them are already graduated. Most of them are people who I met in the classes. During the semester period, as international students who still find difficulty in understanding the materials of lectures, most of our time is spent to study together. We discuss the topics of the lectures and ask each other if one of us does not understand about the topics. I find this study group can help me much to understand the subjects, especially in the first semester.

During holiday, we always try to find a time which we can do some activities together. Usually, as we are interested in learning each other culture, we try to find activities that can also give us a chance to learn other cultures. We tend to choose cooking together and visiting each other. We cook food from our own country and eat together. I knew that even some of us come from Asian countries, but our foods are different. Unlike me, most of my friends can not handle spicy foods that contain a lot of chilly! When we are hanging out together, we try to learn more about each other by sharing stories of our family, friends back home, occupation, hobbies and lots more. All of the activities done are one of the most precious moments that I have during my study in Australia.

Making friends is always fun!

Foreign students facing tougher tests

This article below is about a possibility of the changes English language requirements that must be met to enter Australia university since it is found that the international students' English skill still below expectation. This articel can be found in this address : http://www.theage.com.au/news/NATIONAL/Foreign-students-facing-tougher-tests/2007/01/29/1169919238933.html#


Australia will toughen up English-language requirements for foreign graduates after a report showed poor language skills among many overseas students.

The report by Melbourne's Monash University found more than a third of overseas students were completing degrees with English so poor they should not have been admitted in the first place.

Report author Professor Bob Birrell, director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research, said the government required those coming directly to Australia to pass an English test.

But a third were entering universities without having passed that test.

"The government is assuming that the various pathway programs they do once they get there will bring their English up to standard. But these results indicate that is not the case," he said.

Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) president Professor Gerard Sutton said a toughened language requirement, jointly developed with the immigration department, will come into effect in July next year.

Professor Sutton rejected any suggestions universities had lowered standards to allow fee-paying overseas students - who contribute around 15 per cent of university revenues - to graduate.

He said only a student with adequate English reading, writing and listening skills could pass university exams.

But students with inadequate spoken English ran into trouble if they sought to remain in Australia and work in their chosen professions.

There are currently 239,000 foreign students in Australia. About a third will seek to stay and work - a process the government encourages to meet skills shortages.

"What has been identified, and one has to accept that this is an issue, is that in some of the professional areas the spoken English is not up to scratch," Professor Sutton said.

"The way this is dealt with is if you wish to remain in Australia and work in the professions, there are more difficult criteria that the vice-chancellors have worked up with the department of immigration."

Professor Sutton said there had been a 12-month trial of the new regime.

(IELTS) in Australia, said the onus should fall on universities to ensure students had adequate English ability to study and meet employer requirements.

"Language competency and communications skills should be embedded in the curriculum and should be tested and examined in exactly the same way as the content of the professional and general disciplines," he told ABC radio.

Greens senator Kerry Nettle said the government's systematic underfunding of universities and promotion of the user-pays philosophy had led to the use of overseas students as cash cows to prop up university budgets with little concern for quality.

"The government and the opposition need to commit to a significant indexed boost in government funding to universities and in turn allow universities to change their overseas student profile to favour quality not quantity," she said in a statement.

Prime Minister John Howard said he would seek advice from the vice-chancellors and Education Minister Julie Bishop.

"But I'd like to look below the headline of that research before saying other than that, on the face of it, it's concerning," he said.

However Ms Bishop accused Mr Birrell of an "extraordinary" attack on universities and said international students must meet international benchmarks in language to get a university place.

"I have seen no evidence to suggest that students aren't able to complete their courses because they're failing in English, yet they are being passed by the university - I have not seen any evidence to back that up," she said.

Dealing with Assignments

I knew one thing that most international students will be concern when they are studying in Australia, it is about the assignments. Based on my experience study in Australia, especially at ANU for almost two years, assignments are the most crucial things during the semester. At the first time, I found difficulty in doing the assignments because the assignments are quite different with what I have been done in my previous studies. The requirements of the assignments and the expectations of the lecturers are quite difficult to be fulfilled if we do not have any experience with Western education. However, we can still achieve good marks if we want to give more efforts in understanding how to do a good assignment, whether it is a presentation, essay papers or project reports.

One thing that important in which I discovered as I am experiencing in doing the assignment, especially in essay papers and report projects is we need to clearly stated our arguments or opinions. But, our arguments or opinions must be supported by credible authors or experts from journal articles. This is quite hard for international students that come from Asian education since the education shapes us to be descriptive in stating our opinion when we have to write an essay. We are afraid to state our arguments or opinion because we are not an expert, we are still a student. We are also afraid to make mistake. Changing a descriptive model of writing into an analytical model is very hard because we already experienced the descriptive model for a quite long time. This situation, generally, impedes students to obtain good mark, especially in the high distinction level. However, we can overcome this problem.

Based on my experience, as we have to write more essays, we will attain more sense of what we have to do in creating a good essay. One of my lecturer said that to have a good writing skill, one needs to practice a lot and there is no other way except that. Since we write more, we can figure out the good structure of an essay, the essay or report writing style, or the good presentation. To give more assistance in understanding of doing the good assignments, we can also ask to the education learning centre in the university. Although the consultants may not have the same study background with us, but at some stage they can give suggestions since they know the Australian education and its expectations. In addition, do not afraid to ask the lecturers about the assignment if we do not understand. The lecturers will basically be willing to have a discussion about the assignments with their students.

Assignment is not as a threaten as it looks like! In fact, we may miss it as we graduate!

PhD Scholarships 'Below Poverty Line'

Here is another article which is important especially for those who want to study for PhD degree. It was written by David Curry published in Canberra Times on 1 May 2008. The article can be accessed in this address : http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/phd-scholarships-below-poverty-line/402962.aspx

Hope you still have a spirit to pursue a PhD degree!

The dollar value of PhD scholarships is "in freefall" and projected to drop below the poverty line later this year, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations says.

Figures released by the council yesterday show that the weekly stipend rate for Australian Postgraduate Awards projected for the December quarter of this year $385 will fall below the projected Henderson poverty line for the same period. And that figure is for a single person with no dependents. The stipend, which does not vary according to circumstances, is well below the poverty line of $581 for a person with two dependents.

The standard annual stipend for a PhD student is $20,007.

The council said the dollar value of the PhD scholarship had fallen, in real terms, from 47 per cent of average earnings in 1992 to just 35 per cent in 2007. "These figures spell out what research postgraduates already know that the basic stipend rate for the APA is, by itself, simply not enough to live on," council president Nigel Palmer said.

At the same time, studies showed that between one-fifth and one-third of academic staff at universities were expected to retire in the next decade, and would need to be replaced by PhD graduates.

The council said the Federal Government needed to follow up its commitment to make research postgraduates a priority, by immediately increasing the stipend rate for all postgraduate awards by 30 per cent. It also called for the exemption of scholarships and awards from assessable income for taxation and income support purposes.

Marcia Keegan, 29, an economics PhD student at the University of Canberra, has two part-time jobs to top up her scholarship. The 29-year-old does research work at the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at the university and teaches aerobic classes.

Ms Keegan's scholarship is an industry scholarship, which is higher than the standard rate. Having taken out a mortgage before she began the doctorate, she said she would not have been able to make ends meet had she been on the standard scholarship and had her husband not been working full time.

"The base scholarship is about $400 a week, and even in a group house these days it would be hard to get a room for less than $150 a week."

Ms Keegan echoed concerns aired by the council that tutoring, which many PhD students turn to for extra money, resulted in many hours of effectively low-paid work. Students were paid well for the tutorials, she said, but were expected to do several hours of preparation, along with marking and student consultation. Eight one-hour tutorials a week would mean a total of 16 hours of work or more.

ANU PhD student Nicki Munro, 35, who is studying restoration ecology, said she managed reasonably well on a scholarship, but only because she has no dependents, lives in a group house with three others, rarely eats out and usually rides her bicycle.

"It's relatively easy to live in on as a single student, provided you accept that you're going to live as a relatively poor student for the next four years," she said. "I think it would be a lot harder if you were a mature age student with dependents it's very common for people to go back and do PhDs when they're older."

The acting vice-chancellor of the ANU, Professor Lawrence Cram, said the formula for indexing the stipend was inadequate to keep up with the cost of living. "I think questions could be asked as to whether the indexation used is actually appropriate for the salaries of people."

Professor Cram said if the Government was serious about a knowledge economy it needed to increase the number of PhD students, which is low per capita compared with many countries. Most doctoral students regarded the PhD as a job rather than a course of study, and deciding to embark on one was a difficult decision when there was often much more money to be made in the workforce.

Professor Stuart Cunningham, president of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, said scholarships also needed to be extended from three years to four, since most PhDs took more than four years. He said the financial hardship of undertaking a PhD was daunting for anybody.

Part Time Job

During their study in Australia, students also work as a part timer. Probably, finding a part time job is not hard for local students. But for international students, especially if it is their first time to study in Australia, looking for a part time job may be quite difficult and time consuming. Based on my experience, it depends on the area students want to work. Most of the part time jobs available are waitress/es, kitchenhand, cashier, cleaner, and housekeeper. In this article, I will not explain how to find a part time job. Indeed, I will highlight some issue that international students must consider when they are looking for part time job so that they can study and work without problem.

In the new regulation, international students will have a working visa attached in their passport directly. They do not have to apply for a working visa when they arrive in Australia. One thing that must be remembered by international students is the working visa only allows students to work twenty hours a week during the semester. But, they can work more that during the holiday. What usually happens is as international students attempt to get money to cover their living cost, they break the rules. Their assumption is that since there are plenty of international students in Australia, the chance to get caught are little. However, we can not rely on this assumption since it is wrong. We must obey the rules especially, we are not in our home country.

Another thing to be considered is find a part time job which is safe. What I mean by safe is student must ensure that the company or business owner also obey the regulation of running business in Australia. I found that some students who are working in the restaurants receive cash on hand. This cash on hand implies that the owner does not report his/her employees’ tax to the taxation office. Thus, it can be said that the employees work as illegal employees. To avoid any problem that can come up because of working in such company, it is suggested to find a credible company to work for even if it is only a part time job.

Good luck in searching the part time job! But do not forget, study comes first!

Students in Distress

Here is an article about one of international student problems when they feel isolated during their study in Australia. I found the article in the Factiva website. The article was published in The Newcastle Herald on 8 March 2008 which is written by Matthew Kelly.

Isolation 'leads to drugs'

SOME international students are turning to alcohol and drugs as a result of social isolation and disillusionment with their study experience.

Others, who are paying between $20,000 and $50,000 a year to study in Australia, are quitting within the first year because of difficulties fitting in.

Several international students at the University of Newcastle raised their concerns about their experiences with The Herald this week.

Second-year Kenyan student Brian Iseme, 23, said he found it difficult to settle into his studies when he arrived.

"I expected more [help] when I came here," Mr Iseme said.

Moroccan student Jawad Chafil, 24, said many international students were under the impression that Newcastle was a global city.

"They should be doing a lot more in the area of extra-curricular activities for international students, things like recreation activities and shopping," said Mr Chafil, who admitted he used to smoke marijuana to deal with the the isolation.

"That's what I thought before I arrived but it's very different."

Other students had turned to stronger drugs with disastrous consequences, he said.

A university spokeswoman said overall feedback from its 3500 international students indicated most were positive about their experience at the university.

"However, at times, they have raised concerns about their reception from the broader Newcastle community," she said.

Newcastle University Students Association president Beth Maloney said the university needed to invest more resources to help international students.

"If international students are contented and performing well it's only going to benefit the university," Ms Maloney said.

The university spokeswoman said it was continually improving and expanding the services available to international students.

The university regularly promoted counselling and other services.

"Importantly, the university recognises that, in some cultures, asking for help is a sign of failure and stress, particularly international students," she said.

"An important message for all students is that asking for help at this university is not a sign of failure."

Pressure on PhDs to Meet Grade

The article below may be beneficial for those who want to study at PhD degree. I found it from : http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22324208-12332,00.html
This article is written by Bernard Lane


STUDENTS may have to defend their PhD theses orally and examiner panels could be audited for quality under reforms being considered by elite universities.

The ideas floated by Group of Eight executive director Mike Gallagher come amid claims that the once respected qualification lacks relevance, suffers from dubious quality and gives candidates false hope of employment.

These claims have dominated a lively debate on the HES website after Curtin University of Technology academic Richard Nile declared the PhD "a dinosaur from a previous age of elite education" in an HES online article.

Mr Gallagher told the HES that the PhD had undergone so much change it was high time for a fundamental review.

"There are a lot of PhDs going into universities that don't have much of a performance record in research, and that's a worry," he said.

"I don't know what level of confidence there is in the community any more."

The Go8, not expecting much help on standards from politicians or the Australian Universities Quality Agency, was carrying out its own fact-finding survey.

Yesterday, federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop said it was the responsibility of universities to work with industry to give graduates the skills they needed and to "focus on the quality of their programs, including their PhD programs, to ensure the sector is able to compete internationally for students and academics".

"It is up to individuals to decide whether a particular qualification has relevance for their career prospects, whether in the private sector or academia," she said.

AUQA executive director David Woodhouse said: "Just like the Go8, we are concerned about standards."

Although AUQA looked at processes for enrolling, supervising and examining research students, the agency had not yet carried out "a sample check" on the standing of overseas examiners.

This might be done during a 2008 second-cycle audit. But as yet no institution had suggested the relevant audit theme of research training, despite the advent of the research quality framework.

Mr Gallagher said it was possible the Go8 would audit examiners to make sure they represented centres of strength in the fields examined. This would underpin quality and include an element of public accountability.

"If your PhD examiner panels
are made up of people from second-rank institutions in that field (under examination), then that will be known," he said.

"There's (also) a lot of discussion of panels reverting to the viva voce, (which would mean) you have to demonstrate that you can actually defend your propositions."

As part of a broad review of the PhD, the Australian National University was looking at a logistically manageable viva, according to pro vice-chancellor Mandy Thomas.

Professor Thomas said it would not be feasible to fly in all the international examiners. (ANU had about 500 PhD completions a year.)

A few months before they submit, candidates might defend their work before a panel of supervisors and experts in the field. But if this practice were adopted it would be as an "internal quality measure" and not part of the examination.

Nigel Palmer, president of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, said: "Students are always going to be cautious about anything that looks like a viva.

"Particularly towards the end of their candidature, PhDs are close to exhaustion. It's a very daunting proposition to come out and give a stunning presentation. Also, (a viva) disadvantages international students."

Mr Palmer said a key issue was the unrealistically tight time frame for PhDs imposed by the federal research training scheme and scholarships.

"The pressure of shorter completion times has had an impact on quality," he said. "The message from supervisors is: forget this being your life work, forget this being an original contribution to the field, it's just got to be good enough to get you across the line and ... in time."

Mr Gallagher also criticised the research training scheme: "The Government's timing of 3 1/2 years is at least one year tooshort."

Professor Thomas said it was possible completion times might get longer as the university put more emphasis on skills.

"We're boosting professional training within the PhDs; that is useful for people who will become academics as well as for those who will leave the university and join industry or government," she said.

This training might involve dissemination of research results, commercialisation, journal editing or conference organisation.

Within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Australia had very short completion times; the longer PhDs of the US were thought to be one reason for a decline in domestic candidates. It was possible that the duration of PhDs in Australia and the US would converge.

Mr Gallagher said Australia's leading universities were struggling to find domestic PhDs in essential fields such as mathematics. He was not a critic of trends such as the professional, work-focused PhD; it was a matter of striking a balance between depth and breadth and re-establishing the relevance of the qualification.

"You hear reports where people say: 'I didn't disclose in my job application that I have a PhD.' In the labour market it's seen as a nerdy thing to have," he said.

Even if the thesis were given less weight by examiners to make room for more coursework, the essential nature of the PhD had to be preserved.

"I think the capacity to undertake original research and to demonstrate that you are in command of your field, that you can critically evaluate the literature, that you can construct a hypothesis and defend it, the discipline of it, in the old academic sense, is fundamental," Mr Gallagher said.

Tips to Find an Accommodation

The critical thing that can take a lot of energy for international students in their first time of arrival to study in Australia is to find place to live. I have five tips to make finding accommodation become easier which are explained as follows:

1. Apply to University Halls
This can be a choice for those who are single or married without children because most university hall only provides room for singles or couples. In the case of those who are married with children, they do not have any other option except finding outside university accommodation.

2. Search Accommodation Website
Based on my experience, allhomes website (www.allhomes.com.au) is very helpful in giving details information about accommodations that are available in specific areas or suburbs.

3. Takeover Other Students’ Accomodation
Students who are going to finish their study usually offer their accommodation for the prospective students. This can be found through university advertisement or student’s organisation mailing list. Be active to find students who will graduate to takeover their accommodation! However, new international students who do not need a preparation stage to enter the university usually come close to the date of the first semester. If it is the case, finding the accommodation will be tougher because most of the available accommodation already rented by new students that come earlier.

4. Ask to the University Accommodation Services
Each university usually has an accommodation service which is very helpful in assisting student who have problem in finding the accommodation. Do not hesitate to come to this place and ask them any kind information regarding accommodation, especially when you are new to the environment.

5. Go to the Agent
This is usually rare to be done. But, if you still find problem to find accommodation, this tip is worth to try. However, search information about the agent, first. It is because some agents do not treat students well.

Hopefully these tips can help you to find the nice accommodation to support your study success!

Slipping through the safety net

Here is another article I found from theAge website. The article tells about a case which then explain about problems usually faced by international students. By reading this article, it is hoped that those who are going to study in Australia can make a good preparation prior their departure to Australia. The article can be found in : http://www.theage.com.au/news/Education-News/Slipping-through-the-safety-net/2005/05/21/1116533578743.html#

It was January when they found Zhang Hong Jie in her apartment in the Canberra suburb of Belconnen. Neighbours had complained of a smell.

The 24-year-old Chinese student was dead, murdered - as police investigators alleged - by her Chinese boyfriend, Zhang Long.

The alleged murder itself was shocking enough, but it was the facts surrounding the discovery of the University of Canberra student's body that were also deeply disturbing.

Police believe Ms Zhang, also known as Steffi, was murdered in June last year - her body remaining undiscovered for seven months.

Murders happen. But it is the staggering delay in the discovery of Ms Zhang's body that has raised serious questions about the duty of care universities have to international students.

More than 200,000 international students study in Australia, becoming the financial saviours of our universities, their fees keeping them afloat.

The tragic case of Ms Zhang has started an overdue debate, not only in Canberra but around the nation, about the level of support and care universities are providing international students.

Certainly, universities are aware of their pastoral care responsibilities for students, particularly those transplanted from other cultures. The question is whether the support services are working as an adequate safety net for the inevitable problems such as isolation and social adjustment.

Discovering just what went wrong at the University of Canberra has proved difficult. The university has refused to discuss Ms Zhang's case in anything but the broadest of terms.

"On the surface it looks like one thing," says Jandy Godfrey, the university's development and international executive director. "But the actual facts of the case make more sense. But we're not at liberty to talk about the facts of the case."

Ms Godfrey argues this is because of privacy laws preventing the university discussing individual students, the privacy of Ms Zhang's family, and the fact that the case is in the hands of the police.

She confirms that the university had recently "opened its books" to the federal Department of Education, Science and Technology, which is charged with ensuring institutions enrolling international students meet certain standards, including support services for the students.

According to Ms Godfrey, the department recently wrote acknowledging "the throroughness of our policies and procedures".

The department confirmed it had made a "compliance visit" to the university in February, one of 94 conducted this financial year. Asked if it had any concerns with the duty of care provided by the university to Ms Zhang, the department replied it did not comment on individual cases.

What is publicly known is that the Shanghai-born Ms Zhang arrived in Australia in 2000, first studying at the Canberra Institute of Technology, and moving to the University of Canberra in 2003.

A statement by her family last month talked of her as a "kind girl", who "always did her best to care for everyone around her, and those who needed help, and she never cared about her own interests".

The critical question is why Ms Zhang's absence from her studies was not noticed by the university. Students are treated as the young adults that they are, and rolls are not marked. But there were other signs that Ms Zhang had simply vanished from the university.

"You can't stop murders, of course," says Di Adams, the head of the university's branch of the National Tertiary Education Union. "(But) the fact that a student slipped between the cracks, that no one noticed, that she hadn't re-enrolled for the next semester, that she hadn't been putting in her assignments and things like that ..."

The university staff were "all pretty devastated", Ms Adams says. "It's a very small university and one where we'd always seen ourselves as a very caring and student-oriented university. So this shatters the self-image."

The university has been doing "a lot behind the scenes" on procedures, says Ms Adams, who thinks that in a break from usual practice, the university may start marking rolls.

She understands that already, some people have been asked to do it informally. One report has suggested that the federal department has asked the university to keep a roll in a particular subject.

University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis says he was horrified by the unnecessary tragedy of Ms Zhang. Could it happen at Melbourne with its 7000 international students? Professor Davis would like to think the university's tracking systems and students' support would pick up not hearing from a student.

"I'd like to tell you it couldn't happen but I can't guarantee it," he says.

The Canberra case has left universities closely examining the vast student support services they provide.

"What happened was the extreme end," Professor Davis explains. "You can't just explain it away but it's an extreme case not the general case."

Universities are similar to schools in the responsibility they feel for students, he says.
"Students are not just customers coming through the door. They're part of us in that sense of loco parentis (in place of the parents) even though we're a very big organisation," he says.

Professor Davis says universities go to great lengths to provide a complete educational experience for international students. Like many other institutions.

The University of Melbourne runs country induction programs and conversational language courses before students leave for Australia, as well as providing academic, accommodation and welfare services.

"We're all very conscious that reputation is the only thing we're trading on, and if Australia gets a reputation about being cavalier about taking people's money and not providing service, it's self-defeating," Professor Davis says.

Aditya Tater, from the National Liaison Committee for International Students, rates the support services provided in Australia at a six or seven out of 10. He points out that it isn't simply good teaching and the degree the students want - they come to Australia for the overall education "experience" and personal development. "People don't just come here to pass," he says.

As the international student market softens, Mr Tater suggests that one of the reasons is that students don't feel they are getting adequate support for the money they're paying - that they are not getting value for money.

Student Cheung Hei, who has studied at both Monash and RMIT, says universities take the approach that students are able to take care of themselves. The standard of teaching is good, but he laments the level of support available.

"Sometimes really there's no help, there's no one we can talk to if we have a problem," says Mr Cheung, from Hong Kong.

The economics student puts it in market terms. "We're buying a product. We're paying the money for services and support. We're getting product, but we're not getting enough support."
Director of student services at Victoria University, Stephen Weller, says international students have become a vital and vulnerable source of revenue for universities, but income isn't the only reason universities want to attract overseas students.

International students also "internationalise" the domestic curriculum, expose local students to international issues and add to their education experience, he says.

Mr Weller says the notion that all international students have large amounts of money is no truer than it is for domestic students. "The typical international student isn't from Hong Kong doing business, there are students from across the spectrum," he says.

One of the most pressing issues for international student welfare, Professor Davis says, is the impact of the new Federal Government legislation making student union fees voluntary. He says the majority of the fees go to support services, such as overseas student organisations, that are under threat from the new laws.

"It's an odd thing to have such a big (international student) export market and then decide to cut off one of its major selling points, which is the quality of the experience," he says.

"Even if for ideological reasons, you feel student unions should be voluntary, a reasonable proposition, the notion that in order to get to that you would be prepared to take out as collateral all the other services that have been offered using the amenities fees is a big leap."

Last month, Melbourne University student newspaper Farrago published its international edition. One article, "The unspoken divide: new racism", starkly describes the lack of integration between international and local students.

"Black heads and yellow faces dominate the union tables while brown or blond heads and white faces rule the lawns," it states.

"Sights of international students sticking together and international students (overwhelmingly Asians) huddling by themselves is commonplace, be it in lectures, social clubs and even tutorials."

It's a separation that arts/law student Kelvin Tran sees daily. There's no real mixing or interaction between the two groups, the 21-year-old local student observes. And it's a separation that extends from the university lawns to the separate law students and international law students society.

Mr Tran, who attended Maryland High school in Reservoir, is less sure about why. He wonders if some international students see their experience in Australia as a transaction - somewhere to come for a degree and then return home. But he also understands the safety of staying within a familiar and supportive culture in a new and foreign country.

"Even though they came here to experience a new culture, when international students come here it's natural to stick together," he says.

His take on the attitudes of local students is also based on comfort zones. Local students don't see the need to go out of their way in making international students welcome.

Last year, at several Australian campuses, the issue of racism wasn't as subtle as segregation on the university lawns. A right-wing group began an ugly campaign against international students, who were subject to racial vilification, which included an attack on an African student at the University of Newcastle. The international students committee knows of at least two students at Newcastle who decided to abandon their studies and return home.

Back in China, Ms Zhang's boyfriend has given himself up to police in Shanghai. There is no extradition arrangement between the two countries, and Chinese officials are conducting their own investigations. Australia will assist only if Chinese authorities give an undertaking he will not face the death penalty should he be convicted.

Her family says it believes justice will be done and the boyfriend will be severely punished. "We hope that with the concerted effort from all, similar tragedies will not happen again."

Shane Green is Education editor of The Age. David Rood is The Age's Higher Education reporter.

Traps for international students
Problem gambling and mistreatment in the private rental market are two developing welfare issues for international students in Australia.

In recent years, the number of international students coming forth with gambling problems at the city office of Gamblers Help has started to ring alarm bells.

The numbers aren't huge but the manager of the service's city office, Tim McCorriston, says problem gambling among international students is a significant issue.

International students meet many of the criteria of high-risk groups. Problem gambling is often associated with times of transition and isolation, Mr McCorriston says, when gambling can be a form of escape and dealing with emotional pressure.

"International students have moved to another country and culture, away from normal support mechanisms and often close to CBD gambling establishments," he says. "They are often dealing with financial responsibility for the first time and have high expectations on them to perform well."

Most of the students seen by the Gamblers Help office have Asian backgrounds, but Mr McCorriston baulks at the notion of branding people from Asian cultures as being more prone to gambling problems. He explains the prominence of Asian students as a simple reflection that the majority of international students have Asian backgrounds.

"Gambling is more of an issue of the culture that international students are going to, rather than where they've come from," he says. "Our culture is as much a gambling culture as anywhere in the world."

Gamblers Help now has a high presence at university orientation week and works closely with student welfare officers.

A research and policy officer with the Tenants Union of Victoria, David Imber, regards many international students in the private rental market as being in the category of vulnerable and disadvantaged.

International students who decide to enter the rental market face problems such as wrongful eviction, being charged illegal fees, harassment and discrimination, he says.

Their knowledge of their rights is very low, and often the information they receive from consumer affairs and universities about housing is poor.

"People who are from non-English-speaking backgrounds, who are not aware of the cultural practices of renting, are at significant risk of discrimination," he says. "Students are more likely to occupy housing in the lower end of the market, where a lack of housing provides a greater opportunity for property managers to make assessments based on the types of students they would like to have in their property."

Plagiarism

Plagiarism may become the issue that international students need to be cautious when they are studying in Australia, especially those who come from a different education environment. In my previous education experiences, the issue of plagiarism does not taken seriously. Therefore, I know less about this issue. I become more aware about plagiarism issue and how to handle this issue as I am studying at ANU.

For international students who do not know about this issue, they may become shocked if they do not try to find how to cope with this issue. This happens to me at the first time during my first semester. However, I know how to avoid this issue, as I learn how to write essays, quote others’ opinion and make citations in the assignments.

Based on my experiences, the difficult thing is to express others’ idea in our own words and readers can understand our words, especially international students may still struggle to cope with language barriers. One strategy that can assist international student to avoid plagiarism issue is by practicing a lot through assignments given by lecturers. As in the assignment students ought to present their ideas supported by credible sources, students can exercise to rephrase others’ opinion and use correct citations and references. Practice makes perfect!

New Visa Arrangements for Foreign Students

Here is an article about new regulation for international student visa. The article is available on April 25, 2008, from : http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23596724-662,00.html

FOREIGNERS studying in Australia will automatically be allowed to work part-time under new visa arrangements.

From tomorrow, all student visas will be granted with work rights attached, removing the need for people to make an additional application.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said all international students would be allowed to work up to 20 hours a week while their course is in session.

"It means that international students can apply for part-time jobs in Australia as soon as their courses start,'' Senator Evans said.

"It will reduce red tape for students wanting to work in Australia and allow more efficient use of department resources.

"Making it easier for international students to work while they study will also assist industries currently suffering serious labour shortages.''

New streamlined processes for people applying for student visas from India, Indonesia and Thailand have also been introduced. The immigration department has granted 228,592 student visas to people from 191 countries in the year to June 2007.