News Archive

Kirsten Bolinger
Public relations editorial assistant

While their contemporaries in Melbourne and Sydney are marching for equal rights, international students at Avondale College are generally happy with their higher education experience.

About 10 per cent of undergraduate students at Avondale are from countries outside of Australia and New Zealand. Their primary concern, according to Avondale's international admissions coordinator Caryl Stanley, is the degree of culture shock they will experience.

Several of the international students Connections spoke to say they experienced mild culture shock on arrival in Australia. David Sefo, a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching student from the United States, finds idioms and jargon still make communication difficult at times. "I'm not Australian, so there are always some things I'll never understand," he says. Brian Lauratet, a Bachelor of Theology/Bachelor of Ministry student from Mauritius, studied English at school for 13 years, but that did not prepare him for the way Australians speak. "I had never heard such a way of speaking English before!"

Other students would like to see more promotion of cultural awareness on campus-a lack of interest forced Student Services to cancel Cultural Night, the only cultural event organised regularly by Avondale.

They also nominated money as a mutual concern. The students pay more for tuition and a mandatory $750 per semester as a facility fee-it is optional and only $350 per semester for those from Australia and New Zealand. The fee the international students pay covers one return transfer from Sydney Airport to Avondale and one trip to Wyong Hospital or John Hunter Hospital per semester.

Student Services helps international students meet some of their financial obligations by finding work for them while they are studying. Its employment information officer finds work for all students but gives priority to international students by informing them first of job opportunities. The director, Kevin Judge, says Student Services aims to integrate international students into the social life on campus in a natural way. "Students who come now are fairly mobile. They link up pretty quickly."

Most from the United States "proactively integrate themselves," says the assistant director of men's residence, Shane Roberts. Shane's colleague in the women's residences, Mere Neale, says she and the director, Deirdre Hough, are incorporating international students into a special interest group program they supervise. "We take them under our wing because most of the overseas students don't always have someone around to be there for them like Australian students do."

Violent attacks on Indian students in Sydney and Melbourne have led to a Senate inquiry into the welfare of international students in Australia. Marches by international students in Melbourne and Sydney earlier this month coincided with a visit to India by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Julia Gillard. She invited a delegation of international students from a roundtable to the inaugural meeting of the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment, held yesterday (September 28). The council has agreed, among other broad goals, to provide by mid-2010 an online manual for international students that includes information about studying and living in Australia.-with Tammy Zyderveld, Connections editorial intern

Credit: Tayvia Daniels