Being an international student is not all bad. Some of it is terrible
In the summer of 2006, my family had taken the day off only to usher me towards the promise of a big bright future in which I was about to scale continents only to educate myself. Three weeks later, in a sketchy Melbourne suburb, I was battling stubborn stains in the heat of a commercial kitchen.The international student experience is not as advertised. But, 15 years after I was one myself, I now know exactly why: university brochures are to blame.Daksh Tyagi pictured in 2006, soon after he arrived in Australia as an international student. Now look, I am not…
Housing crisis: Feds stick by immigration plan, rethink international student flows
Possible partial pivot but limited to international students, Minister Miller linking this to fraud concerns, not permanent residents and temporary workers.Kind of an interesting contradiction in the article between “pace of population growth, facilitated by immigration, is making the housing crisis worse” and “Most experts agree that the root causes of this housing shortage are unrelated to immigration.”The alarm bells are becoming bull horns: Canada’s housing supply isn’t keeping up with the rapid rate of population growth. Academics, commercial banks and policy thinkers have all been warning the federal government that the pace of population growth, facilitated by immigration, is…
8000 Indian students likely to go to study in France in 2023
Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris as chief guest of France’s National Day on July 14, France has announced new initiatives to roll out the red carpet for Indian students and alumni. The number of Indian students going to France is increasing each year. In the first semester of 2023, offices of Campus France, the organisation in charge of promoting French higher education abroad, processed more than 4000 applications for long study in France. The positive trend is expected to continue with the total number of Indian students and researchers leaving for France expected to be close to…
Warning: Australia inundated with fake international students
Last year, Julian Hill, Labor’s federal member for Bruce, alleged that Australia’s international education sector had devolved into a “ponzi scheme” by attracting international students with easy work rights and permanent residency.Hill claimed that “agents in many parts of the world who are flogging our precious student visa as some kind of cheap, low-rent work visa” were “misusing” Australia’s generous work rights and the incentive of permanent residency.“We know that the incentive of a permanent visa to Australia is like a golden ticket from Willy Wonka’s chocolate bar”, he said.Hill was supported by Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education…
Nixon report challenges Home Affairs over visa system exploitation
A review of the criminal exploitation of Australia’s visa system is questioning the Labor Government’s resolve to fix the Coalition’s mistakes. Dr Abul Rizvi reports. FORMER POLICE Commissioner Christine Nixon’s damning report raises two crucial questions: how could the extraordinary level of exploitation of Australia’s visa system have been allowed by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) – a department set up by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Secretary Mike Pezzullo specifically to make the visa system more secure against exploitation by criminals; and is the Government now doing enough to address the vulnerabilities? In her transmittal letter to Home…
International student living under a bridge in Toronto helped by strangers
Videos have gone viral on TikTok of a group of international students assisting their fellow foreign student who was found sleeping under a Toronto bridge. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. In the series of videos posted by Chirag Gondi, the group helps the unidentified student find housing for the night at what appears to be a local Salvation Army shelter. According to Gondi, the group spotted the student near Scarborough’s Victoria Park and stopped to speak with him. He told the group he needed to…
Agents the “most valuable partner in the room”
“International education [sometimes] gets a bad rap and unfortunately, education agents take that more than than anyone,” said English Australia CEO Brett Blacker. Within the Australian sector, he estimated that between 75-80% of all international students come via agents. “In English language, it’s more in the high nineties in that in that regard,” he continued. Data from 2019 suggested that 75% of all international enrolments in Australia came via agencies. TAFE provider in Geelong, Victoria, The Gordon receives between 85-90% of students through agents, according to executive director for Commercial Business, Jana Perera. Vice president for international at Torrens University, Rob McGowan, noted that since Covid-19, the…
Renewing Canada’s International Education Strategy
Canada’s current International Education Strategy (IES) expires on March 31, 2024. Global Affairs Canada (GAC), in collaboration with Employment and Social Development Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada are consulting stakeholders based on their mandates. In summer 2023, feedback from these consultations will be consolidated to inform the final version of the IES. GAC has launched consultations with provincial and territorial governments as well as with education associations and institutions. The IES consultations will continue until July 31, 2023.IES planning papersTo support the consultation process, GAC has developed a series of papers on Canada’s international education landscape.IES planning papersThese papers…