Explore The New World

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.

1. Introduction the topic of our project (Done)

2. Interview questions (Eric Pang and international students) (Done)

3. Introduction about NLC (National Liaison Committee for International Students in Australia)

4. Introduction about the campaign of NLC “Safety First – On Campus & Beyond”

5. Introduction about the “National Conference for International Students 6-8 October 2008” of NLC

6. References: including the links of articles from ABC, Herald Sun, The Age and NLC and two articles (6&7) from NLC

Webpage is devided into 5 main parts: Home, Bloggings, Multimedia (audio and video interviews), Link and About Us.

* For Eric Pang, President of NLC (National Liaison Committee for International Students In Australia)

1. According to some articles in Herald Sun recently, racist attacks, high renting, low-paid jobs are making life a misery for many foreign students in Melbourne. What is your opinion about this issue?

2. Is Melbourne a safe place for the overseas students to live in?

3. According to a Mercer’s 2008 Worldwide Quality of Living Index, Sydney remains among the top 10 world’s best cities to live in, while Melbourne – 17, while in terms of personal safety, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney – tied 29. So are there any conflicts between this survey with the issue in question 1?

4. Could you tell us about the campaign “Safety first – on campus and beyond” that is running by NLC?

*For the international students (2 Indian students and 1 international student)

1. Please introduce a little bit about yourself (name, nationality, university, study major etc.)

2. Do you go to work besides studying at university?

3. There were 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. How do you think about this idea? Have you faced any difficulties when you are studying in Australia?

4. Several months ago, an Indian student was working as a taxi driver and was stabbed and critically injured by a passenger in Clifton Hill about 3 am. How do you think that Melbourne is safe place for the international students?

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23673379-2862,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23673455-661,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23673284-2862,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23673285-2862,00.html

http://www.theage.com.au/national/sydney-slips-in-city-rankings-20080611-2oqf.html?page=-1

http://www.nlc.edu.au/main/index.php

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/features/s2359868.htm

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24078936-2862,00.html

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/05/12/1210444339492.html

I remember one day when I just come 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. An unidentified 23-year-old taxi driver, a student from India, was stabbed and critically injured by a passenger in inner suburban Clifton Hill about 3am.

Then, there were 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, Melbourne and Sydney are among the world’s best cities to live in.

In a forum of MOVSA (Melbourne Overseas Vietnamese Student Association), there were a debate around an article which was published in a Vietnamese newspaper. This article is about the life of international students based on the data from the articles in Herald Sun. This story made the parents of Vietnamese students worried.

So, in summary, is Melbourne a safe place for the international students?

We plan to interview some international students in generally and Indian students in particularly about this issue. Also, we try to contact to Eric Pang, President of NLC (National Liaison Committee for International Students in Australia) for the interview. One of the events of the year 2008 by NLC is “Safety First – On Campus & Beyond”.

Webpage: Afghanistan – The Violent Frontier

http://www.smh.com.au/multimedia/afghanistan/main.html

• How well does the site use navigation?
• How effectively is it designed?
• How effectively does it use photos, graphics, broadcast and interactive elements? List the elements that are present.
• How well are the stories written/presented/packaged?
• What did you love about it? Hate about it? Why?

Firstly, this website impresses me by its color. There are only two colors: back and white. When I look at the front page, I immediately think about the war and death. So this website is successful about the color if the designer want readers to imagine something behind the color.  However, it is not like the news website. It is more like the game website about the war and battles. The front page is boring. It is not active, not animated. There are only text and images. The main things they used are photo (slideshow), video and audio. The navigation is simple. The readers need more options to link pages.

The

At the end of August, there was the big issue in the Australian press. Fairfax, Australia’s leading media company,  says it will cut about 550 jobs, or 5 per cent of its workforce, as part of a “business improvement program”. Fairfax journalists across Australia were on strike in protest at the company’s plans.

Why Fairfax decides to cut so much jobs like that? During discussion with my classmate from South America, she told me this happens regularly in her country and Western countries.

This case continues the debate about development and future of newspapers. Revenue/profit, breaking news (looking news in depth) and freedom of speech are the important things that affect on any kind of media.