INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION campusreview. com. au
Listen to us
The voices of overseas students provide the truth about their experiences and are the key to overcoming prejudice and misconceptions to help Australia be a world leader.
By Thomson Ch’ ng
The recent Australian International Education Conference marked the fifth year of the Council of International Students Australia’ s( CISA) involvement in the largest international education conference in Australia.
Sadly, the education minister, Christopher Pyne, could not attend but party colleague Senator Bridget McKenzie addressed the audience on his behalf.
McKenzie reiterated the government’ s commitment to expanding international education to secure Australia’ s place as a world leader with a robust and sustainable reputation for quality. The word quality was used 16 times throughout her 10-minute speech. The goal, she said, was to position Australia as a world leader and world-class study destination for international education.
Sound familiar? It should. This is the key message from various stakeholder groups and governments of states and territories in their publications, spokespeople’ s speeches and many other forms of communication. Whilst this emphasis on quality makes sense, the question remains as to the extent the Australian higher education sector is ready to move forward as a community to realise these lofty visions.
In a video message, Pyne described international education as“ more precious than gold”, noting that it is the third-largest commodity for the nation after iron ore and coal.
Such remarks may make perfect sense from the sector’ s perspective, but they also reinforce the fact that international students collectively are seen as a cash cow. Often the conversation focuses too narrowly on the degree to which the sector is being commercialised and commoditised. But the fact is, it’ s all down to the cost-benefit analysis when it comes to the decisionmaking process for international students studying abroad.
There is also the issue of the way the public perceives international students. Back in 2012, a terrifying attack on Sydney train passengers left two international students seriously injured and caused a media storm in China. However, it wasn’ t the incident itself that sparked anger amongst many international students – it was its nature that was truly shocking. The victims reported being called‘ Asian dogs’ and more whilst being beaten. In addition, a female passenger who watched the attack
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