A study by Monash University has found international students are struggling with loneliness, discrimination and financial difficulties while studying in Australia.
70% of international students face periods of isolation or loneliness while studying.
The report surveyed 200 international students from 34 different countries and focused on their experiences studying in Australia.
[infogram id=”76cf2fa1-a4af-47ad-87fe-b46d21b59b61″]Source: The Social and Economic Security of International Students in Australia: Study of 200 student cases. Summary report. Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements. Australia: Monash University. 2005
International education contributes nearly $20 billion to the Australian economy annually, making it one of Australia’s top service exports.
Australia currently has 602,313 international students studying at educational institutions, a figure that has grown 151% since 2002.
The Deloitte Access Economics report, Growth and Opportunity in Australian International Education, predicts Australia’s onshore enrolments will grow another 45 per cent by 2025, which equates to Australia hosting around 720,000 students onshore.
[infogram id=”9a74fa10-f942-41b2-a579-ec588ffb1190″]Source: Australian Department of Education, International Student Data https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/international-student-data/pages/default.aspx
Are universities doing enough to support growing numbers of international students?
A separate study by Melbourne University showed 27.6% of the 970 students surveyed agreed they had needed counselling service help.
Yet only 20% of the students who needed help actually visited a counselling service, with 60% not knowing where to go or how to get an appointment.
[infogram id=”05eb1184-62fc-4e75-8543-eeed55b030fa”]Source: International student use of university health and counselling services. Melbourne University Faculty of Education. Australia: Melbourne University. 2007
On 30 April 2016, the Australian Government released the National Strategy for International Education 2025 setting out a 10-year plan for developing Australia’s role as a global leader in education.
In a section titled Delivering the best possible student experience, the report states, “we will look for new ways to deliver and improve support services”, but there is no specific mention of wellbeing or counselling services.
Monash University has the second largest number of international students in Australia (26,201 in 2015, behind RMIT with 26,933).
Programs aimed to help international students, like ‘English Connect’, are said to book out months in advance.
Caitie Bleeker, a third year psychology student, runs a wellbeing program called ‘Uni and chill’ at Monash University.
The program started as a workshop for first year students to help adjust to university life, but Miss Bleeker realised most of the students who attended were actually international students.
“A lot of the international students hadn’t experienced a place where they could come and just chill,” says Miss Bleeker. “Lots of workshops for foreign students are based around study tips… but they go with a notebook and they don’t talk to the person next to them.”
Miss Bleeker says international students feel isolated because they often live alone, come to university alone and have difficulty making friends due to the language barrier.
“There’s a lot of hopelessness around making friends,” she says. “For an international student who is already worried about their English skills, and then there’s cultural references they don’t understand on top of that, making friends is very difficult.”
Heshan Inamaluwa is an international student from Sri Lanka studying at Monash University. He attended the Uni and chill program.
“We learnt about procrastination, mindfulness and self-care which are quite useful for someone who is still adjusting to university life,” says Mr Inamaluwa.
With the number of international students continuing to grow, Miss Bleeker says universities need to be doing more.
“If such a huge amount of the university population is international students and we want them to thrive, then there’s a huge, important area that’s being overlooked.”
