International Students' Experiences in Australia

This assignment delves into the experiences of international students pursuing higher education in Australia. It examines various aspects such as their motivations for studying abroad, challenges they face in adapting to a new culture and academic environment, and the support systems available to them. Furthermore, it explores the impact of work-integrated learning on their employability skills and career prospects after graduation.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Project Objective.........................................................................................................................3
3. Project Scope...............................................................................................................................3
4. Literature Review........................................................................................................................4
Opportunities for the international students................................................................................4
Challenges faced by international students..................................................................................6
Gap in Literatures........................................................................................................................7
5. Research Questions......................................................................................................................8
6. Research Design and Methodology.............................................................................................8
Quantitative Method....................................................................................................................8
Qualitative Methods.....................................................................................................................9
7. Research Limitations.................................................................................................................10
8. Time Schedule...........................................................................................................................10
9. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................11
10. References................................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
Education has over the years, remained one of the primary necessities of human life, after
essentials for survival like food, clothing and shelter. Education not only augments the skills and
knowledge of individuals, but also adds to their standard of living by opening new doors of
opportunities for them in terms of better employment scopes and income generation. However,
not all nations across the world provide educational frameworks of equal quality and prospects,
which makes many able and deserving candidates to migrate to different corners of the world in
search of opportunities of higher education and skill development, which can help them in
building a shining career and long-term sustainability for themselves (Bano 2015).
Of the few countries, which are considered, to have the most efficient and career-oriented
educational framework in the contemporary period, Australia is an eminent one, which in turn is
reflected in the huge number of international students, migrating to the country every year, with
the hope of attaining higher education in the country. Due to the benefits and career prospects,
which the educational system of the country provides, this huge pool of students, especially
Asian students come down to the country (Shah and Sid Nair 2013).
However, along with the wide ranges of opportunities, which the educational system of
the country provides, the international students are also subjected to several challenges in their
everyday process of survival in the country, itself. Taking this into account the concerned project
tries to explore and critically analyze the opportunities as well as the challenges, which are
usually faced by the international students who migrate to Australia for attaining educational
degrees.

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2. Project Objective
Based on the above discussion, the primary research objectives of the project, on which
the path of analysis and interpretation would depend, are as follows:
 To explore the phenomenon of huge migration of international students in the country,
the reasons behind this migration and the general traits prevailing among the population
of international students
 To explore opportunities which can be availed by these students and for which they come
to study in Australia
 To analyze and interpret challenges and hurdles faced by these students while pursuing
education in Australia
 To design feasible strategic recommendations which can be useful, if implemented, to
combat the hurdles and challenges faced by the international student in the country,
thereby maximizing their welfare
3. Project Scope
In the present competitive global scenario, to stay ahead in the race of career building and
attaining financial stability, it is of crucial importance to have a robust academic background.
With the cognition and expansion of different academic domains and overlapping of the same,
there arise huge career opportunities from these domains. In this context, Australia does provide
huge opportunities for the international students to come and explore their options of pursuing a
vast range of educational opportunities for a better future. However, the international students
also face huge complications regarding accommodations and adjustments in the inherent cultural
environment if the country. The issues, which make pursuing education in the country difficult

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for them, hamper not only the students but also the economic prosperity and goodwill of the
country as a whole. The project, exploring this domain, provides ample scopes of studying these
issues of concern and the barriers or disparities, which are present in the educational framework
and the casual factors working behind the same. It also provides the opportunities to develop
possible recommendations, which can be useful in this aspect.
4. Literature Review
In general, international students are those who migrate to countries other than their
native countries for pursuing any academic course or degree from an educational institution of
the foreign country. Australia, in this context, is the third largest service provider in this domain.
According to the empirical evidences, in almost all the major Universities of the country almost
half of the students are comprised of the non-English speaking population. Campbell (2012)
argues that the country earns an annual profit of 22.4 billion AUD from the inflow of migrating
students in the country, which has increased by 15% in the last few years. Ng (2012) with the
help of empirical evidences, finds the international population of student in the country to be
primarily consisting of students from China (30%), India (11%) and Malaysia, Nepal and
Vietnam (4%).
Opportunities for the international students
As asserted by McLean (2012), the spectacular economic growth of the country over the
last few decades and the booming industrial and commercial sector of the country have resulted
in creation of a host of professional opportunities in the country. This in turn can be attributed as
the primary cause behind the migration of students from all parts of the world in the country.
Augmenting the views of the former author, Arnove, Torres and Franz (2012), in their working

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paper, argues that another underlying reason behind the huge global attention on the academic
sector of the country is that of the top 100 universities in the global framework, according to the
QS ranking, seven belongs to the country itself. The authors also highlights the presence of a
hugely diversified courses which the academic institutions of the country offers, including
engineering, medicine, nursing, technical trainings, sports disciplines, which provide huge career
opportunities to the students who pursue these courses from the globally renowned institutions of
the country.
Along with the above assertions of the eminent efficient scholars, which talk about the
opportunities and the potential scopes that attract international students from all part of the world
to the educational sector of Australia, the views put forward by Altbach (2015) can also be
counted. According to him, the universities in Australia not only provides best coursework for
building career in corporate environment, but also facilitates research and academic careers due
to the presence of a highly research-intensive culture. The empirical evidences put forward by
Pollard and Wilson (2013), shows that the upsurge of the automobile, infrastructure, automobile
and IT industries in the contemporary period increases the scope of those students who pursue
higher education in the country.
Apart from the career incentives, the amiable and student friendly societies in the country
and the integrating and inclusive culture of the country, as stated by Wenhua and Zhe (2013), can
also be considered as crucial contributors to the opportunities for the international students,
thereby attracting them from all corners of the world. As per the assertions of the authors, the
societal structure and mindsets of the residents of the country, facilitates in easy acculturation of
diverse global students, thereby making them comfortable to live in the country.

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Parker (2012), also argues that the Australian universities offer promising and higher than
standard scholarships to many of these international students who come to pursue higher degrees
in the country. Apart from that, the robust technological and infrastructural framework in the
country, provides huge prospects for science, medicine and technology oriented research, adding
to the benefits of both the students and the economy as a whole. Gribble (2014), also points out
at the presence of large opportunities of the international students to start their professional life,
at least temporarily in the country, post completion of their academic coursework, which also
adds to the privileges, which attract the international student to pursue higher studies in the
country. Apart from that, the cost of living in the country, according to Harrison and Ip (2013), is
much less than the other developed countries having similar educational opportunities, like that
of the United Kingdom or the USA. The consistent industrial boom and a consequent increase in
the scopes of employment also add on as opportunities for international students, thereby
attracting them to the country, over the years.
Challenges faced by international students
However, clubbed with the myriad of opportunities present for the international students
in the country, comes several disadvantages, hurdles and challenges which the students coming
from all parts across the global have to face while studying in the country. Walters (2012),
argues that one of the primary hurdles faced by the international students in the country is that of
the language barrier, since most of these students are not English speaking. This also forces the
academic assessors to go soft on the marking procedures. However, this relaxation being not
present in the professional domain, these students face immense problems when they step into
their professional lives.

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Volet and Ang (2012), highlights the presence of immense cultural differences as one of
the hindering factors. This is especially true for the Asian students who face the conflict between
the Western cultures in the country and traditional way of living they are usually accustomed to.
Apart from these, the existence of financial aspects is brought forward by Yusoff (2012),
according to whose opinion, the cost of education borne by undergraduate international students
without scholarships in as high as 29,235 AUD, while the cost of the same for the domestic
students vary from 0 to 6,349 AUD on an average. The problem of adaptation to the highly
different educational framework is pointed out by Gomes et al. (2014), which poses as a hurdle
in this aspect.
Jackson (2013), highlights one of the considerably serious challenges faced by the
international students in the country as the problem of bullying and acute racisms which they are
frequently subjected to, the percentage of victims being as high as 37%. This, together with the
above-discussed problems, indicates towards the scope of improvements in the educational
framework of the country and calls for efficient government intervention.
Gap in Literatures
However, in spite of the presence of robust literary works regarding the opportunities,
which the Australian education system provides to the international students and the challenges,
which they face in the process, there remains a gap in the aspect of designing proper strategies
and measures to rule out the problems and hurdles. The role of the government and the potential
of the same in this process are also not found to be extensively discussed in the existing
literatures. Addressing these issues can, however help considerably in combating the situations
and hurdles faced by the international students in the contemporary period.

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5. Research Questions
Keeping the literary gaps in consideration, the primary research question for the concerned
project is:
 What are the underlying causes behind the challenges and hurdles faced by the
international students in Australia?
Along with this, the research also tries to find solutions to the following questions:
1. What are the possible strategies, which can be taken by the universities in order to reduce
the problems considerably?
2. What can be done by the government of the country in this respect?
3. What are the roles of the society and the residents of the country in combating the
situations?
6. Research Design and Methodology
For carrying out the concerned research, it is of crucial importance to design the research
framework properly and incorporate relevant methods for the purpose of data collection, analysis
and interpretation. Taking this into consideration, the research intends to incorporate both the
quantitative as well as the qualitative research methods to make the finding and interpretations
robust and relevant (Kumar 2014).
Quantitative Method
Keeping the advantage of quantitative methods in interpreting big numerical data in
concern, the research proposes to conduct interviews with the international students
(undergraduate and postgraduate) in five of the most eminent Australian universities. The

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possible questions, which are expected to be included in the questionnaire includes the
following:
 Cost of the academic coursework (Undergraduate and Postgraduate)
 Scholarship (If any) received by them
 Other expenses
 How often the students face bullying and racism issues
 How safe they feel in the campus
 Any government regulation or program which benefits them or makes studying in
Australia easier
The collected data is to be analysed and interpreted with the help of statistical softwares
like Stata or SPSS.
Qualitative Methods
Often the ordinal yet crucial information are missed out in quantitative analysis, which
leads to biased or distorted analysis (Liamputtong 2013). To avoid the same, the research
proposes to conduct in depth interviews with 30 international students (3 undergraduate and 3
postgraduate from each of the five selected universities) and focused group discussions with the
international students from these universities covering the following issues:
 Their personal perceptions of opportunities which they are getting here
 Their personal perceptions of obstacles they are facing
 Detailed descriptions of bullying or racist incidents faced by them (if any)
 How they suggest to remove these problems

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7. Research Limitations
While the proposed research has the potential to cover several critical issues regarding
the challenges faced by the international students in Australia and to recommend the way outs to
the problems, the domain of exploration for the same is restricted. Due to time and cost
constraints the research proposes to base the data collection among the students only, which
leaved the threat of losing out important information and perceptions of other people in the
society who are directly or indirectly related to the problem discussed in the project.
8. Time Schedule
The proposed time schedule of the different parts of the research project is as follows:
Project Milestone
Task Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish
1 Research
Ideation 1 day Tue
1/16/18
Tue
1/16/18
2 Literature
Review 4 days Tue
1/16/18 Fri 1/19/18
3 Research Design 2 days Fri 1/19/18 Sat 1/20/18
4 Data Collection 6 days Sun
1/21/18 Fri 1/26/18
5 Data
Interpretation 2 days Sat
1/27/18
Mon
1/29/18
6 Publication of
the Data 2 days Tue
1/30/18
Wed
1/31/18

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Figure 1: The Gantt chart of the proposed research activities
(Source: As Created by the author)
9. Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be asserted that Australia poses as one of the
prospective countries for migration of international students over the last few decades, much of
which can be attributed to the educational and professional prospects, which the country offers to
the students. With the hope of a shining career, huge numbers of students migrate to the country
every year, contributing significantly to the economic prospects of the country. However, there
remain several problems and hurdles, which are faced by the students in adapting and surviving
in the country while pursuing their higher studies. The concerned research proposes to consider
these issues and discuss their causal factors, impact and tries to recommend the strategies, which
can be feasibly implemented in order to eradicate these problems.

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10. References
Altbach, P., 2015. Perspectives on internationalizing higher education. International Higher
Education, (27).
Arnove, R.F., Torres, C.A. and Franz, S. eds., 2012. Comparative education: The dialectic of the
global and the local. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Bano, A., 2015. Importance of Education. IJB, 2(6), pp.48-50.
Gomes, C., Berry, M., Alzougool, B. and Chang, S., 2014. Home away from home: International
students and their identity-based social networks in Australia. Journal of International
Students, 4(1), pp.2-15.
Gribble, C., 2014. Employment, work placements & work integrated learning of international
students in Australia. International Education Association of Australia, Research Digest, 2.
Harrison, G. and Ip, R., 2013. Extending the terrain of inclusive education in the classroom to the
field: International students on placement. Social Work Education, 32(2), pp.230-243.

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Jackson, D., 2013. The contribution of work-integrated learning to undergraduate employability
skill outcomes. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 14(2), pp.99-115.
Kumar, R., 2014. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage.
Liamputtong, P., 2013. Qualitative research methods.
McLean, I.W., 2012. Why Australia prospered: The shifting sources of economic growth.
Princeton University Press.
Parker, L.D., 2012. From privatised to hybrid corporatised higher education: A global financial
management discourse. Financial Accountability & Management, 28(3), pp.247-268.
Pollard, V. and Wilson, E., 2013. The “Entrepreneurial Mindset” in creative and performing arts
higher education in Australia. Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, 3(1), pp.3-22.
Shah, M. and Sid Nair, C., 2013. Private for-profit higher education in Australia: widening
access, participation and opportunities for public-private collaboration. Higher Education
Research & Development, 32(5), pp.820-832.
Volet, S.E. and Ang, G., 2012. Culturally mixed groups on international campuses: An
opportunity for inter-cultural learning. Higher education research & development, 31(1), pp.21-
37.
Walters, C., 2012. International students--returning their investment Australia's reform program
for international education. The landscape for policy makers and practitioners in tertiary
education, pp.71-82.

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Wenhua, H. and Zhe, Z., 2013. International Students'adjustment Problems At University: A
Critical Literature Review. Academic Research International, 4(2), p.400.
Yusoff, Y.M., 2012. Self-efficacy, perceived social support, and psychological adjustment in
international undergraduate students in a public higher education institution in Malaysia. Journal
of Studies in International Education, 16(4), pp.353-371.