Category: Australia

International students’ mental health is big business

“Students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are at a greater risk of experiencing mental health issues”

We can all agree that Covid has tested those with even the most robust mental health, let alone international students and visitors who were cut off from returning to their home countries.

The same goes for students and visitors who quickly returned home to be with family before the borders shut and could not return to their life in Australia.  Both cohorts have had their mental fortitude tested during this unprecedented period.

Whether it manifested in financial stress, grief, loss, or just the trauma of going through a pandemic isolated from their support system, there’s no doubt that the reality of coming to study in Australia was vastly different to the dream they were once sold. Especially when students were learning online in their bedrooms in India, Nepal or elsewhere and not in Australia at all living the life they imagined.

One in four young people in Australia will experience mental health issues each year. Importantly, students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are at an even greater risk. Moreover, more than one in four university students experience high-stress levels that negatively impact their studies, relationships, and daily lives.

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Three positives to emerge from Covid

“This pandemic dictated immediate upskilling in online teaching capability in order to reach students in their homes”

For all of us in international education, Covid-19 has ripped up the rule book. While it’s been the most challenging time of our careers, there have been many positives – our digital ambition has accelerated; we’ve been forced to innovate; and the student experience has been front and centre, writes Tom Gifford, Head of Student Recruitment (International & Domestic) at RMIT University.

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Why “when it’s safe to do so” is a catalyst for negative reactions

“For students, and for the Australian public, the question becomes personal – who are we being kept safe from?”

Since the start of the pandemic international students stuck offshore have been given repeated promises of being permitted to return to Australia “when it’s safe to do so”.

Eighteen months since Australia’s border closed, many once-patient and understanding students are  turning to social media to voice their frustration with Australia’s ever-changing timeline and ambiguity around the prospect of returning to Australia.

Over the last four months, The Lygon Group has been monitoring social media to get a closer understanding of international students’ sentiment about Australia’s border closures and Covid-19 response. Varsha Balakrishnan explains what they’ve found.

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Is Australia’s response to the international student crisis similar to China’s?

“It is concerning that the grievances from China’s international students and Australia’s are strikingly similar”

China is the world’s largest country of origin international students, writes Angela Lehmann, head of research at The Lygon Group. In 2018, more than 662,100 Chinese students left China to pursue overseas studies. And Australia is one of the three leading destinations for these young people.

However, what is less discussed is that China is also a major destination country for international students and is currently the third largest receiver of students in the world, with almost 500,000 students studying there in 2018.

Like Australia, China closed its borders to international students in March 2020. Both countries now have large groups of international students wanting to return. And these groups are becoming increasingly vocal as their situations worsen.

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Playing by the new rules: online education and academic integrity

“Online education and testing offer the opportunity to introduce new techniques to ensure academic integrity”

Covid-19 has changed Australian higher education beyond recognition, writes Pal Fekete, academic director at Taylors College Sydney. Health restrictions and travel bans heralded a new age of online teaching and assessment for domestic and international students and teaching staff.

Students might now join a discussion or take a test from their homes, student accommodation or thousands of miles away in a different time zone. And while it is essential in an emergency, the questions remain: how should teachers work with students who may be reluctant to engage online and how can they be sure tests and examinations are fair?

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Why the unis who win intl students will be those with provable graduate outcomes

“81% of international students see buying an international education as an investment”

This year has been an incredible year of disruption for international education, writes Shane Dillon, found of Cturtle and UniAdvisor. It has rapidly brought to the forefront conversations around education delivery and the value of tertiary education in general in the 21st century.

As of March 2020, the global movement of international students has vanished and the future of the sector, the countries and university brands involved are in a state of flux.

Now more then ever before it is critical for the sector to embrace data on international graduate employment outcomes to illustrate clearly to consumers the value and return on investment an international education delivers. Numerous studies from UNICEF, QS and Cturtle show clearly that employability is the most important consideration impacting student choice across Asia.

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Upskilling the international graduate talent market for a post-pandemic future

“Overseas talent has always been well-primed to help fill skills gaps in high-growth sectors like digital and technology”

Earlier this month, the UK government released further details on its new points-based immigration system, part of which hopes to provide international students the opportunity to live and work in the UK for a further two to three years after they graduate, writes Justin Cooke, chief content and partnerships officer at FutureLearn.

Similarly, in Australia, the government has announced it will recommence granting student visas among other measures to help support international student’s career pathways in the country. 

Unlocking the potential in highly skilled international student talent has become a greater priority for both industry and government over the years, more urgently so since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Throughout the pandemic, larger businesses especially have continued relying on the international graduate market according to recent insights, demonstrating the huge value of this talent pool.

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Covid-19 an opportunity to truly internationalise Western education

“Little progress has been made in embedding non-Western ideologies and philosophies in current teaching”

There are currently more than 5.3 million international students furthering their education outside their home countries, writes Thanh Pham of Monash University.

The majority of which are non-Western students studying in Western countries. There have been growing calls for the need to support international students in Western countries, including providing financial aid, creating safe environments, and respecting cultural diversity.

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How Google Trends can assist education providers during times of uncertainty

” This dataset in the time of COVID-19 can prove to be a useful tool in gaining a better understanding of some of the extraordinary changes”

 

The international education sector is dealing with a period of uncertainty, complexity and confusion, unlike anything we’ve known before, writes Keri Ramirez, managing director of  Australia based consultancy firm,  Studymove

To mitigate the uncertainty created by COVID-19, this month we looked at a different data source which we thought would help support education providers in their current and future decision making.

Google Trends analyzes a portion of the three billion daily Google searches and provides data on geospatial and temporal patterns in search volumes for specific terms. It is a useful tool to assess the change in the intentions of individuals based on their online search activity.

The power of Google trends is the ability to report real-time insights on what the audience is thinking. This dataset in the time of COVID-19 can prove to be a useful tool in gaining a better understanding of some of the extraordinary changes affecting the international education sector worldwide.

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Canada and Australia: The dark horses of international education

“The diversity in Canada’s student population is something that Australia is looking to replicate”

Graham Edward is Enterprise Sales manager at edtech platform, Cohort Go. In this blog, he discusses some of the similarities and differences between the “dark horses” of international education, Canada and Australia.

 With roughly five million students studying internationally in 2017 alone, the future looks bright for international educational institutions – especially those in Canada and Australia. These two countries are consistently ranked in the top five for inbound international students. When you consider that the top two countries on that list – the United Kingdom and the United States – are facing continued political challenges that could potentially alienate students, the maple leaf and southern cross shine as top contenders.

Between 2016 and 2017, Canada recorded a 17% increase in international student numbers, and for the first time last year, leapt ahead of both Australia and France to become the fourth most popular destination for international students globally.

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