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Learning like a refugee
Universities are helping
asylum seekers where the
government is not.
By Loren Smith
A
s a Master of Information Systems
and Technology student at Curtin
University, Muhammad Majid, 28, was
so poor he couldn’t afford textbooks.
He would either borrow them from the
library – if they weren’t already borrowed
by someone else, or try to find a friend to
study with. He didn’t have a laptop either
– so he would stay late after class to study
at the library. Despite this, he never scored
below 70 per cent in a subject.
A member of the persecuted Hazara tribe
from central Afghanistan, Majid arrived in
Australia in 2013 by boat. When he applied
for university, his claim for refugee status
was still being processed, so he was not
eligible for FEE-HELP. Indeed, under his visa
category, he was classed as an international
student.
For asylum seekers like Majid, paying
these fees is an impossibility. This is why
several Australia universities, including
Curtin, offer full-fee scholarships to asylum
seekers.
Majid, who already had an engineering
degree from his home country and could
read, write and speak English fluently, was
Curtin University’s inaugural asylum seeker
scholarship recipient.
16
He has extremely high hopes for his
future. “I believe I’ve been granted god-
gifted talent,” he says.
“It’s not easy for someone who belongs
to a refugee background, who never got
the opportunity to go to the best schools
and colleges (except the very last one in
Australia), and somebody who belongs
to a rural area of a very underdeveloped
country, to be able to reach this good level
of achievement.”
Having graduated from Curtin, Majid
now works as the information and
communication technology project
manager for one of the largest wholesale
food companies in Western Australia. He
dreams of starting his own sustainable
‘e-invoicing’ company.
“If a customer goes to Kmart and buys
something, rather than printing that whole
invoice, which is a complete waste of
paper and ink, we could actually use online
systems to record that transaction,” he says.
“My business model would be focusing
on fresh graduates, because I believe the
young generation in Australia, they do
complete their degrees, but most of them
don’t get the opportunity to go and join
the workplace straight away. They really
struggle a lot … I’ve been in that sector and
I know this.”
MORE THAN MAJID
Scholarship aside, Majid’s path from
prospective student to graduate employee
was rocky.
“I didn’t have any connections,” he says.
“I didn’t know how things worked. I didn’t
even know the university course structure,
or what supporting documents were
required and all that sort of stuff.”
These thoughts are shared by many
asylum seekers studying here, as enunciated
by them at the November 2017 National
Symposium: Seeking Asylum and Higher
Education.
The symposium’s co-convenor, Dr Lisa
Hartley, from Curtin University’s Centre for
Human Rights Education, reported that
many asylum seekers struggle just to get by.
She said there’s a “big disparity” between
how asylum seekers and refugees are
treated under government policy.
“Those who arrive in Australia from
offshore, who are granted refugee status,
are given English language training and can
apply to university as domestic students,”
Hartley explained.
However, asylum seekers are effectively
prevented from studying, she said, thereby
undermining their employment prospects
and ability to contribute economically
to society.
Scholarships are one stopgap to this, but
there are additional issues. For instance,
before asylum seekers can apply for
scholarships, they must meet English
language requirements and possess certain
documentation.
If their English skills are subpar, unlike
refugees, they are not offered free English
language courses.