Somewhere over the rainbow...

Photo by Fernando de Sousa entitled VIBGYOR, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.

Just had a quick flick through the Rainbow Guide, an orientation and pre-arrival handbook funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, International Quality Branch. The guide is available to download from the excellent International Education Association website ISANA. The Rainbow Guide is basically a template that can be adapted by all education providers throughout Australia in an effort to help student service professionals provide students with a thorough orientation to both their institution and life in Australia.

The AEI website describes it as a synthesis of orientation best practice and Soy Sauce was really impressed with both the presentation and the level of information that the document provides. Also, Soy Sauce is really supportive of this kind of top-down best-practice standardization. With all of the controversies late last year over dodgy education providers, moves from the DEEWR to provide leadership in areas such as pre-arrival and orientation will hopefully raise the level of service provided to all international students during the time leading up and immediately prior to their arrival in Australia.

One area that I find interesting especially in light of recent stories featured on Soy Sauce, is the section of the document covering permanent accommodation. There is a wealth of information and advice provided in relation to renting, all of it presented in clear and simple language. The section covers everything from information about bonds to advice on how to select suitable housemates. It also provides contact details for relevant bodies that can provide further help such as the Tenants Union of Victoria.

However, with the lack of rental properties available in cities such as Melbourne, the document inadvertently serves to highlight the fact that not all service providers have a dedicated accommodation service, and that despite this wealth of information, students face the difficult challenge of actually finding and negotiating a rental arrangement alone. Perhaps if institutions where required to assist students secure suitable accommodation for their first couple of months in their new city, then the depressing tales of students being forced into signing overpriced leases through non-mainstream providers might be less common. So, whilst this document is a great start, further work needs to be done to provide international students with support in securing permanent accommodation.

Racisim and Discrimination

Over the past week or so there have been a couple of interesting things that have popped up in the Age regarding international students in Melbourne. Of most interest to Soy Sauce was an article entitled ‘Students face racism, exploitation’. The article reported that international students in Australia face discrimination in three key areas: the workplace, the classroom and the housing market.

These findings were based on two submissions recently handed to a Victorian State Government taskforce which is examining some of the problems within the international education industry. The submissions were made by the Tenants Union of Victoria and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.

The Tenants Union submission found that in the housing market, students face discrimination when applying for rental properties. Unable to find a house to rent within the mainstream rental market, they and are forced into applying for private rooming houses which are often overcrowded and unsafe.

The Human Rights Commission submission states that in the workplace international students are paid less and asked to work unreasonable hours . According to the Commission these students have too little information about their legal and human rights, and in cases where an incident does occur, they are often too scared to go through formal channels to make a report for fear of breaching student visa conditions.

Whilst the task force's final report was due to be presented to Skills and Workforce Participation Minister Jacinta Allan last month, the Age article indicates that it is still in the process of being completed.