Comparative Analysis: Accommodation for Int'l Students in Australia

This report investigates the accommodation challenges encountered by international students in Australia, with a specific focus on comparing the experiences of students residing in Sydney's Central Business District (CBD) and those in regional areas. It highlights the growing accommodation crisis in Australia, particularly in major cities like Sydney, due to housing shortages and rising prices, impacting the large influx of international students. The report references data from the Australian Immigration Department, noting a significant increase in international student arrivals. The project aims to explore these challenges, assess their impact on local residents, and examine why regional universities struggle to attract international students despite offering advantages like lower costs and incentives. The literature review discusses the pros and cons of studying abroad, Australia's popularity as a study destination, and the strain on housing supply. It also contrasts the benefits of regional areas, such as lower living costs and government initiatives, with the preference of international students for urban centers and the reputation of city-based universities. The report formulates a research hypothesis regarding university campus expansion in regional areas and poses research questions related to mitigating accommodation challenges in Sydney CBD and improving growth in regional areas to attract more international students. The methodology section details both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, including a case study at the University of Sydney, interview processes, thematic analysis, and considerations for reliability and validity.

Running head: MANAGEMENT RESEARCH
Accommodation challenges faced by international students in Australia: Comparative
analysis of students studying in Sydney CBD and regional areas
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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1. Introduction
Accommodation crisis is a major social problem in Australia. The residents of Sydney
and almost all the other major cities are facing the challenge of shortage of housing supply and
continuously rising housing prices. This is a problem for the student communities of these cities,
especially in the CBD area of Sydney. This research proposal aims to explore the increasing
accommodation challenges faced by the international students in CBD of Sydney. As per the
data of the Australian Immigration Department, in the current year, there have been an inflow of
525,000 international students in Sydney, which is 12% more than the past year, and 80% of
these students reside in big cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. This research will also
explore the difference between the living conditions between the cities and regional areas and
how that can be addressed.
2. Project Objective
The objective of this project is:-
 To explore the accommodation challenges faced by the international students in cities
like Sydney and how to address that issue, since Australian government is planning to
undertake 1 million international students per year by 2025, which can make the situation
more complicated.
 To explore the challenges faced by the local residents due to increasing number of
international students in Sydney
 To highlight the universities that are located in the regional universities but are unable to
draw international students due to lack of modern infrastructure

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 To recommend how to address the issue of accommodation crisis so that the problem can
be mitigated in the future
3. Project Scope
The scope of this research project is to explore and describe in detail about the challenge
of accommodation crisis faced by the international students in the larger cities, like, Sydney and
creating an alarming situation for the government. There are needs of more accommodation
facilities in the city; however, unresponsiveness and negligence of the government have
contributed in aggravating this crisis. The scope of this project also covers the advantages given
to students in the regional areas and the offers the regional universities give to the students to
attract them. However, the study will also focus on why the international students prefer the city
universities and how this crisis situation can be handled to improve the situation.
4. Literature Review
Studying in abroad has its own pros and cons and that differs from one country to
another. Australia is one of the most popular destinations for higher studies among the students
from all other countries. It has many reputed universities located in the larger cities of Australia
that draw millions of international students every year. Australia has already been suffering from
housing supply crisis and rising housing prices. With a steady inflow of international students,
the accommodation crisis has been increasing at a rapid rate. As majority of the international
level universities have their campuses in and around the cities, the students also prefer to reside
in the city areas, and along with increasing migration of the skilled and unskilled workers, the
accommodation crisis is getting severe. It has been found that the universities can provide

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accommodation to only 15% of the total students and with rising number of students every year,
the demand for accommodation is rising too.
It has been found that unawareness, negligence and unresponsiveness of the government
has contributed in the housing crisis for the students. The government did not pay enough
attention to the challenges faced by the locals due to the rising number of migrated population in
the city and hence, the infrastructures were not developed timely. Since, 80% of the migrated
population is the permanent settlers in the large cities, this is affecting the quality of life of the
local residents. This phenomenon is affecting the problem of shortage of housing supply also,
contributing in the rising housing prices.
It has also been found that a large number of students are now moving to the regional
universities of Australia as the cost of living is lower and the accommodation challenge is less.
The pressure on the public transport is less too. Furthermore, the universities in the regional
areas charge 20% less fees than that in the CBD area of Sydney. Along with cheaper
accommodation and transport, the authorities are now providing various types of student loans to
start businesses in those regions after completing their studies, so that, there is job opportunities,
as well as regional economic development. The authorities have also formulated various
investment plans for attracting flow of money into the regional economy, such as, tax free
business opportunities for the international students. Hence, the Australian government must take
initiatives for building adequate infrastructures in the regional areas for attracting more
international students in those areas, which can reduce the pressure from the cities, like, CBD
areas of Sydney.

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However, it is seen that the international students have a preference to stay in the urban
areas only. The reputed universities of Australia have campuses only in the city areas, which is
the major reason for increasing pressure of students in the cities. In the regional areas, there are
high quality universities that meet Australian standards, but these are not universally reputed.
Furthermore, in the CBD area, the students can get room sharing options that is beneficial for the
students. However, this room sharing option is not much prevalent in the regional areas. The
number of rented places or hotels in the regional areas is much less than in the cities and the
lifestyle is also quite different, which is a challenge for the international students. Therefore,
although the cost of living is higher in the larger cities, the international students have a
preference for enrolling in the internationally reputed universities located in the cities like
Sydney and the housing crisis is getting increased.
5. Research questions/hypothesis
Research hypothesis:
H0: university campus expansion in the regional areas of Australia will not mitigate the
accommodation challenges in Sydney CBD
H1: university campus expansion in the regional areas of Australia will significantly mitigate the
accommodation challenges in Sydney CBD
Research questions
Primary question
1) How the accommodation challenges of the international students in the Sydney CBD can
be solved or mitigated by the Australian government?

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Secondary questions
1) What are the reasons that make the international students in Sydney to choose the
accommodations in the CBD areas over the regional areas?
2) How the possibilities of growth in the regional areas can be improved to attract the
international students?
3) How the government of Australia can take mitigation measures regarding the
accommodation challenges faced by international students in the CBD areas for the
benefit of the locals and the students?
6. Research Design and Methodology
Research design and methodology refers to the actions or strategies of the researcher to
conduct the study in the most comprehensive and scientific manner. This comprises of the
process of data collection, analysis and interpretation for addressing the research questions
(Mackey and Gass 2015). Research methodology is determined by the nature and source of
information and the analysis type to get the findings in the desired manner. In this study on the
accommodation challenges for the international students in the Sydney CBD area, the researcher
will apply both the qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Qualitative research process
Qualitative research process involves semi systematic, informal and subjective research
methods that emphasize on the humanitarian and social aspects and on the words spoken than on
the numeric data, which is collected through the data collection process (Silverman 2016). The
qualitative research process is mostly inductive in nature as it allows the researcher to explore

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the research subject in a new direction without any preconceived notion. Hence, this research
process aims to analyze and understand the humanitarian and social aspects of the research topic.
The primary steps of qualitative research process includes formulation of research
questions, design of the study, collection of data, analysis and interpretation of the collected data,
validation, and reporting and presentation of the findings.
Research question formulation is the first and foremost step of the research study,
which determines the direction of the study. The researcher must design the research questions in
a manner that addresses the research subject in a proper and precise direction (Ratan, Anand and
Ratan 2019). In the given study, the researcher will focus on exploring the accommodation
challenges of the international students in the Sydney CBD and also the factors creating
differences between the regional and CBD areas regarding the accommodation of the
international students. Hence, the research questions are designed in that angle that would help
the researcher to explore those particular aspects in a specific manner. The social and
humanitarian facets of the research topic will be addressed through the questions. In this
research, the design of the study will include a case study. As the students’ perspectives are
highly important in this case on accommodation challenges, it is essential to collect information
directly from the international students. Hence, University of Sydney will be selected as the case
study organization for this study. It would help the researcher to understand the research problem
in the real world perspective (Hancock and Algozzine 2016). The process of data collection
includes methods for primary data collection. Qualitative research process involves qualitative
data collection. Thus, interview process will be considered as the data collection process. Open
ended questions will be designed to get in depth information about the accommodation
challenges faced by them and the potential solutions. The researcher will apply purposive

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sampling technique, which is a non-probability sampling, for selecting three international
students of the University of Sydney and conduct the interview. In this sampling technique, the
choice of samples is not equal or random, and based on the judgment of the researcher (Etikan,
Musa and Alkassim 2016). In the analysis and interpretation process of the gathered data,
qualitative methods will be applied. Narrative inquiry, grounded theory and thematic analysis are
some of the commonly used qualitative analysis process to analyze the social and humanitarian
facets of the research topic (Silverman 2016). In the given study, thematic analysis process will
be applied, under which several relevant themes will be selected and the information or data will
be analyzed accordingly. This will help the researcher to keep the study in the specific direction
(King and Brooks 2018). Variables that are chosen in this study comprises of the factors of
campus expansion in the regional areas by the university and its impact on the accommodation
challenges of the international students in the CBD of Sydney. Validation measures the ability of
the research variables in the measurement of the research topic in the most accurate way (Walter
and Andersen 2013). The findings from the qualitative analysis process will be validated by
using the triangulation of quantitative data analysis. Lastly, presentation of the findings and
reporting will be done.
Quantitative research process
Quantitative research process includes the systematic, objective and formal research
procedures, which deals with numeric data or information (Lewis 2015). This method is
primarily deductive in nature in which research hypotheses are examined on the basis of already
established theories. The primary steps of quantitative research process are formulation of
research hypotheses, design of the study, data collection and sampling, analysis and
interpretation, reliability and reporting (Neuman 2013).

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Research hypotheses represent predictive cause and effect relationships between two or
more research variables, which describe the research topic. These statements are examined using
qualitative tools, that is, statistical and mathematical functions (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018).
In this study, the researcher formulated the research hypothesis to find out the impact of campus
expansion on the accommodation challenges on the international students and to highlight the
potential solutions. Case study design will again be used for quantitative research process and
the University of Sydney will be the case study organization. A correlational case study will be
used in this study. Once again, primary data will be collected under the data collection process.
A survey will be conducted on the students of the university to collect primary data on the
research phenomenon. Probability sampling technique will be applied for choosing the sample
size. By applying simple random sampling, in which the chance of the choice of sample is equal
and random, the researcher will select 50 random students to conduct the survey. This sampling
process helps to reduce sampling biasness and fluctuations (Nardi 2018). The survey
questionnaire will act as research instrument and will contain 10-15 close ended questions, with
replicable scale. It helps in converting the data into numeric values for the analysis process.
Quantitative methods will be applied to examine the research hypothesis. Using SPSS, the
researcher will apply cross tabulations, frequency analysis, correlation and regressions as per the
requirement for the findings. To test the reliability or internal consistency of the data, reliability
test will be applied and Cronbach’s alpha is the measure for the evaluation. Lastly, with the help
of visual representation tools, the reporting will be done.
7. Research limitation
The limitation of this study is based on the time and budget constraints. The researcher
will collect only primary data due to these limitations. Secondary data collection and analysis is a

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time and budget consuming process. Many secondary sources are not free and requires payment
to unlock the papers. The sample size taken is also a smaller one to avoid robustness and to make
data collection less time consuming. However, it might cause sampling fluctuations and biasness
in the outcomes. Furthermore, many factors are responsible for the increasing accommodation
challenge in the CBD region of Sydney that needs much in-depth exploration. This also requires
more time as well as budget.
8. Time schedule
Week
Task 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Making of a strategy
Making of a framework
Extensive Literature review
Review of Ethical and Legal
Consideration
Primary data collection process
Sampling for interview and survey
Making interview questions
Conducting interview
Preparing survey questionnaire
Conducting survey
Data analysis and interpretation process
Qualitative data analysis
Quantitative data analysis
Presentation of the findings and
interpretation
Writing the conclusion
Thesis submission
(Source: Author)

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9. Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above research proposal that the research study that aims to
explore the issue of housing challenges faced by the international students in the CBD region of
Sydney and how that can be mitigated by the Australian government along with comparison of
the factors that creates a difference between the CBD and regional areas accommodation
scenario. The researcher will apply both the qualitative and quantitative research methods in this
study, however, due to time and budget limitation, only primary data will be collected. Survey
and interview, both the methods will be used for qualitative and quantitative data collection.
Using both methods is beneficial in getting a more in-depth insight about the research
phenomenon from both the social and scientific aspects. Based on the comprehensive and
extensive literature review, the analysis process will take place and the findings will be
evaluated. Hence, a correlational study will be conducted to evaluate the causal relationship
between the accommodation challenges faced by the international students in Sydney and the
factors causing the difference between the CBD and regional accommodation aspects and to find
out potential ways to mitigate the crisis.

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