Miki Perkins
July 8, 2009

Source

Victorian students who enrol in a diploma or advanced diploma course who are already qualified at that level or higher — such as someone with a social work degree who wants to do a diploma in youth work — will now be charged full fees, which could be as high as $10,000 a year.

For government-subsidised students, who can defer their fees, the cost of diplomas and advanced diplomas are up from $877 to $1500, and will rise to $2500 by 2012.

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Source (go here for more of the article)
A new resource to help students estimate the amount of financial assistance they are eligible for from the Government has been launched by the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard. The estimator is available from: www.deewr.gov.au

Aleks Devic
June 22nd, 2009

Source: Geelong Advertiser

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GEELONG university students are working as strippers in a daily battle of survival, while others finding themselves at the mercy of rogue employers. Desperation for a job to help pay for living expenses and university fees are forcing young workers into vulnerable situations, unions said.

Have your say on the feedback form

A recent article ‘Cash boost urged for poor uni students‘ by Maria Moscaritolo (April 07, 2009) reported that University Vice-Chancellors expect more money in the Federal Budget for poor students, saying excessive part-time work is interfering with their studies. If you would like to take action on this issue go here and send a quick email.

Monday 16th March: Student Christian Movement (SCM) gathering: ‘Climate Change – Understanding And Responding  In Faith: at Wesley Church ‘Old schoolhouse’, Lonsdale St, Melbourne, prayers, input, discussion and meal, 6.00-8.30pm.

Another SCM opportunity: Orientation Camp with students from various campuses: 27-29 March at Moora Moora Lodge. A relaxed weekend away, exploring the theme of A Christian Response to Climate Change.

For more Information: Wes Campbell – wesleyc@unimelb.edu.au
Tel: 8344 6034/ 0431 847 278
See the blog
Also the chaplains web page

7-Eleven employ lots of international students. The Unite campaign is doing something to assist them.

Source: UNITE member, Kirk Leonard

On Friday February 13 more than 100 people attended a rally outside the 7-Eleven store in the heart of Geelong. The protest called for 7-Eleven to start paying its workers the legal minimum wage and for all unpaid wages to be paid back to them. The rally was also demanding that one of the workers, who was sacked for making a complaint, be reinstated.

Miki Perkins
January 14, 2009

Source: The AGE

Squatters occupying three Melbourne University-owned houses in Carlton – evicted in an early-morning police operation today – have threatened to occupy other university sites to highlight the plight of homeless students.

- Squatters turfed
- Police scale fence
- Early-morning operation

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By Roger Maynard, Australia Correspondent, Straits Times Singapore

International students in Australia are often given misleading information by overseas recruitment companies and frequently exploited in the workplace, a new report has claimed.

The report, which looked into the way the international student community is treated in Australia, has raised concerns about the lack of affordable accommodation and underpayment by employers, among other things.

The study, by The Overseas Student Experience Taskforce, focused on the state of Victoria and was instigated in September in the wake of media and word-of-mouth criticism about local conditions.

International education is Victoria’s biggest service export, and as many as 133,000 foreign post-secondary, vocational and higher education students contributed an estimated A$3.9 billion (S$3.8 billion) to the state’s economy last year.

Highlighting what it considered to be one of the central issues facing these students, the taskforce report said many of them fall victim to Australia’s ban on foreign students working more than 20 hours a week.

Most work beyond the stipulated hours and live in constant fear of being reported to the authorities.

‘The consequence is often that overseas students are at risk of workplace exploitation as they fear they will be reported to the immigration authorities and then deported,’ the report said.

An example of workplace discrimination it mentioned was the case where, for the same job, an Australian student was paid A$14 an hour and an overseas student A$9.

According to the Union for Fast Food and Retail Workers (UNITE), this was only the tip of the iceberg.

In a submission to the taskforce, the union revealed the case of a Chinese student who worked for 20 days on a trial basis in a 7-Eleven franchise and alleged that the owner manipulated the books to misrepresent the number of hours worked for pay received.

‘These kinds of horror stories should not, by now, be news to government,’ the union said.

‘The 20-hour work restriction, coupled with the lack of avenues for international students to come forward to complain about breaches of workplace rights, has created a thriving black market in which gross underpayment of wages, fraud by employers, bullying and intimidation of international student workers thrives,’ it added in its submission.

In response, the taskforce recommended that students who performed well academically should be permitted to work for more than 20 hours a week.

It also recommended that education institutions be required to provide access to affordable and appropriate housing for overseas student in their first six to 12 months in Victoria.

On the question of offshore recruitment agencies providing misleading information, like favourable long-term visa outcomes, the inquiry urged the authorities to set up a register of education agents.

Australia’s Immigration Minister has already pledged to widen legislative powers to tackle the problem.

While the taskforce’s brief did not look at the standard of teaching in Victoria, the report does recommend ‘an effective and responsive quality-control process…recognising that Victoria’s reputation for quality is hard won and can be easily tarnished’.

The study comes hot on the heels of last week’s federal Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education, which claimed that foreign students were all too often regarded as cash cows used to bolster budgets for domestic students and research.

Click here to read the story on the Straits Times site

The AGE reports (11/12/09):

International tourist numbers are dropping (with figures for the three months to September 2008 showing 40,000 fewer than in the same period in 2007).  In 2008 the economic contribution by all visitors grew by 7 per cent to $24.5 billion on the previous year (2007), although that growth was almost entirely driven by the education market which accounts for a third of the expenditure.

David Rood
December 22, 2008
http://www.theage.com.au

INTERNATIONAL students in Victoria are regularly underpaid, face other exploitation in the workplace and are increasingly given misleading information by offshore student recruiters, a State Government inquiry has found.

The report into the welfare of foreign students, to be released today, reveals widespread flaws in the treatment of students and warns a lack of accommodation threatens the growth of the lucrative market.

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