International student travel concessions
The Premier of New South Wales, Barry O Farrell, has announced that transport concessions will be introduced for international students living and studying in some areas of New South Wales. International students will be able to access discounts of up to 35 per cent on bus, train, light rail and ferry tickets in the Greater Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra regions. This covers students living and studying in the inner and outer suburbs of Sydney, as well as the major regional cities of Wollongong and Newcastle. Discounts will apply to 90-day (quarterly) and 365-day (yearly) MyMulti passes. Weekly and monthly passes will not be discounted. Students can expect to save more than $AUD800 on a yearly pass, depending on the transport zones in which they travel. Discounted fares have been introduced in response to a recommendation made by the New South Wales Government’s International Education and Research Taskforce, which investigated the issues faced by international students.
Australia’s international student market has been dented by British schools and universities establishing outposts in Asia and the Middle East. And now the US and China have joined the throng. Countries have always looked to Australia as a success story in attracting international students.Many of those countries are opening up their universities to overseas students, making the international market a global business. Nevertheless, Australia can still attract students. The latest Austrade figures show that between September 2013 and September 2014, international students who began higher education courses increased by 14.7 per cent. China accounted for 37.3 per cent of those enrolments and India, 10 per cent. Students starting postgraduate research rose 9.2 per cent and postgraduate coursework students, 18.9 per cent… READ MORE
Challenges & Competition for International Students
International students forced to work for just $8 an hour
International students are being exploited in workplaces across Sydney, paid as little as $8 an hour by employers who take advantage of their desperate need for work.
The underpayments, well below the legal entitlement, are pushing many to break visa restrictions that limit their work to 40 hours a fortnight, putting the students at risk of deportation.
Fairfax Media visited an English language school in the city this week where more than 50 international students said they were being paid below the minimum wage of $16.87 an hour.
At least a dozen of those students claimed they received $10 an hour in cash at Chinese, Thai, Korean and Turkish restaurants in suburbs including Gladesville, Marrickville, Haymarket and Chatswood.
One Chinese student said she was paid $9, while many students said they knew of others earning $8…READ MORE
