Australia is one of the best places in the world to study for the international students. Australian education has a strong international reputation for excellence. Whether studying at a university, school, vocational or English language institute, the students will receive a quality education that will form a strong foundation for their future success. The figures from ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) recently show that education is Australia’s number one services export, growing by 23.4% from the previous year to $13.7 billion in 2007-2008. Also, according to the statistics of Department of Immigration and Citizenship, there is a strong growth in the student visa program with 278,000 visas granted to international students in 2007-2008.

 

I am among the number of students from countries over the world who chose Melbourne to study.  I remember one day when I just came to city, I saw that hundreds of Melbourne taxi drivers blocked a major city intersection demanding better safety after one of their own was critically injured in a stabbing. This was the first time I saw the scene like that in the centre of Melbourne. Then, by chance, I read a series of articles in Herald Sun about the difficulties that the overseas students in Melbourne have faced. According to these articles, racist attacks, high renting, low-paid jobs are making life a misery for many foreign students in Melbourne, especially Indian students.

 

However, according to Mercer’s Worldwide Quality of Living Index 2008, Melbourne and Sydney are among the world’s best cities to live in.

 

During the time when our group discussed about the topic for the final assignment, I read a suggestion topic on our class’s blog. This is “Safety on Campus – is enough being done to ensure that female students are being kept safe on campus after dark?”. Immidiately, I remember the articles in Herald Sun. So we decided to chose the topic: “Is Melbourne a safe place for the international students?”.

 

We carried out the interview with Eric Pang, the president of NLC. NLC widely known as National Liaison Committee for International Students in Australia is the representative organisation for all overseas students in Australia. Fortunately, the interview was fine. Then, we invited two Indian students and one China student for this issue.

 

When I choose this topic, I hope I can provide some information about the life and study in Australia for the students in generally and the international students in particularly. Also, I have a chance to find out many interesting things through the stories from the interviewees.